A Broken Deal
by Lily Hanson
Summary: The Rangers have to deal with the fallout of a huge betrayal.
1. Dead and Deadbeat Parents

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers Ninja Steel._

Life without her mom was unexpected. Of course, it wasn't like her mother had died of an illness, or even had been struck by a car. Her death had been a murder – absolutely and completely preventable.

But that wasn't the kind of unexpected that Hayley felt. Life without her mother wasn't as hard as Hayley anticipated.

Without a doubt it was difficult. There were times, days, even, when Hayley couldn't bring herself to move. She would wake up in the morning with the thought of her mother being gone and couldn't even will her eyes to open. There were times when she didn't want to do anything or say anything. There were times when she could hear her mother's voice, her laugh, in her head, or see her smile as bright as day and it would hurt so much, Hayley felt paralyzed.

And then there were times where life felt… fine? It wasn't the best way to describe it, but it was just fine. There were days when, despite her mother being gone, Hayley could get herself out of bed, get dressed, share a laugh over breakfast and head to school. There were times where she could hear her mother's voice, her laugh, and see her smile and it would bring her comfort.

"That never really goes away," Sarah said to Hayley, after the white Ranger had confessed to her that the mixed feelings were confusing. "It's really good, then really bad, then okay, then bad, and good and… it's like a roller coaster that you can't get off, but the hills and the dips get a little smaller the longer you ride it. You know, until your dad shows up again, murders your friend's mom and then sides with the bitch you've been fighting for about a year and a half."

"Hopefully that last part doesn't happen," Hayley said. "But the rest of it… you felt it too?"

"Me too," Kelly nodded. "Though, when my parents died, they were already pretty evil. A different type of evil, but evil none the less. I'm still riding that roller coaster too."

"It does get a little easier," Sarah promised. "You'll learn new ways to deal with it all. You'll start to recognize the things that make you miss her."

"And dad?" Hayley asked as she glanced into the other room at her father. While living in a house full of people had kept him distracted, he was still living without his wife. Jenny did her best to help, to give him advice and tricks on adapting to life as a single parent, but the process was still hard on him. He had gone back to work shortly after the funeral to get back into a regular routine, and to distract him from his loss. However, coming home, not seeing Anne, not being able to tell her about his day, or hear how her day went, was taking its toll.

"He's got some things to figure out too," Sarah said. "But mom's been there. She'll know how to help."

"She's trying too hard, if you ask me." Kelly gestured around, at the kitchen, which was clean, despite breakfast having only just finished. Jenny, like usual, had gotten up early to ensure everyone had eaten a good meal, and then took it upon herself to clean up afterwards. She washed, dried, and put away the dishes, and cleaned the countertops, the stove, and even vacuumed and mopped. "It's so clean in here, by dinner I'm sure it'll still be safe to eat off the floor."

"She's just helping out," Sarah said. "You weren't there after dad died. This place away always a bit of a mess because neither of us really cared to keep it clean."

"Maybe overcompensating," Hayley suggested. "You know… because of who's to blame for all this?"

"It's not mom's fault…"

"Yeah, but her husband is the one who killed his wife," Kelly reminded Sarah. "She knows that."

"Of course she does. But you don't blame her and your dad doesn't even know."

"We don't blame her," Hayley promised while Kelly nodded in agreement. "We'd never blame her. She was just as surprised by all this as we were."

"She was betrayed by your dad too," Kelly added. "But Aaron doesn't know that."

"So he really doesn't blame her," Sarah shrugged.

"Okay, how can I put this gently?" Hayley said, and quickly looked over to see if Kelly would have any ideas. When the green Ranger shrugged a response, Hayley knew it was on her. "Okay, well… dad… might blame your mom."

"That's not fair, though."

"Not for the murder," Hayley shook her head. "He's a reasonable guy even in the worst of times but… Jenny might be digging her own grave by helping out so much. If dad did ever find out that Jenny knew about everything, all along, and instead of telling him the truth, she just… cooked him meals and cleaned up after him. He might not take that so well."

"But mom isn't to blame."

"But dad's looking for someone to blame," Hayley said. "We know this is Oedius' fault. We can blame her, take out our anger on her or her monsters. Dad… he knows Oedius killed mom but… she's not as much of a presence in his life as Jenny is. If he finds out your dad played a part in this, and Jenny knew about it, and she didn't say anything…"

"She doesn't owe your dad anything," Sarah growled. "Mom had no idea it was going to happen. If she had, unlike my dad, she would have done everything she could to try and stop it…"

"I know, Sarah," Hayley assured her. "I know that. We both know that. Deep down, dad will know that too. But Jenny's just…"

"Too convenient," Kelly said.

"He's not going to want to go after Oedius. She's a monster and he's…"

"A marine biologist," Kelly said with a chuckle. "If she were a shark or something, he might be able to take her but she's an alien..."

"So… the one thing mom can do to help out, to ease her own guilt over being married to the guy who killed Aaron's wife, is going to be the thing that tears them apart?"

"If he ever finds out," Hayley said. "And I don't want that."

"But… we can't leave your dad… just stranded," Sarah frowned. "I mean… when mom needed help, my uncle Shane came down to help. He stayed if she needed, until she had this all figured out again. If mom ducks out… who will your dad have?"

"I think Jenny's doing the right thing already," Kelly stated. "She's not actually to blame here, and she's doing all she can to help Aaron. It'll just suck if, on top of all this, she turns into a punching bag for him too."

"That's… that's also not fair."

"It's not fair my mom's dead," Hayley said. "Sometimes, things just… aren't fair, I guess."

"That's not fair," Sarah pouted.

-Ninja-Steel-

Though Bill had sided with Madam Oedius, his goal was still to keep his family safe. In the end, it didn't matter what else happened, if Sarah and Jenny were safe and sound.

His daughter wanted nothing to do with him. Understandably, his betrayal had hurt her, and when he had refused her help, refused to turn his back on Oedius, she turned her back on him. Bill was sure he wouldn't see his daughter again off the battle field.

His wife was another story. She would visit, check in on him, if only to make sure he was keeping his distance from Sarah and the team.

Though Bill knew this wasn't a happy reunion, he did still smile when he saw Jenny coming through the trees. He still loved her deeply – maybe more than ever before. It took all he had to stop himself from taking her in his arms.

"Jen…"

"This is really how you're going to play it?" Jenny asked him. She wanted to skip the small talk and spend as little time here as possible.

"Oedius is too strong."

"So, you'll make her stronger?" Jenny said. She had been thinking of what to say to her husband to convince him he had made the wrong choice. "You'll side with her, and give her every advantage you possibly can…"

"I'm helping her," Bill confirmed. "But I don't want to win."

"So you're messing with her plans? Feeding her false information?"

"No. If I did that, and if she found out…"

"She'll come after me?" Jenny asked. "Turn Sarah into a target? Bill, she's trying to take over the planet. We're already in danger."

"Yeah, she's taking over the planet, but people don't have to die for her to do that," Bill said. "It's the ones who resist who aren't protected. If I help her, you and Sarah…"

"You're being loyal to a monster you know will never show you that same loyalty?" Jenny frowned. "You do understand, if she gets the chance, she'll kill Sarah, regardless of what you did for her?"

"If I don't help her, that's a guarantee. If I do help…"

"She pledged her loyalty to Galvanax for years, all while plotting to overthrow him one day. If she can do that to him…"

"I have to do something, Jen. I can't just… leave Oedius then sit around and do nothing."

"This is better than doing nothing?"

"I can help, here."

"Help who? Us?" Jenny frowned deeply then shook her head. "You already said you wouldn't stand in Oedius' way. You won't tell us what she's up to."

"I…"

"You're not the man I married," Jenny told him. "The man I married, the Bill I know, he would never do this to his daughter."

"Jenny."

"She was your whole world, Bill. You cancelled dates when she was sick, you took days off work to watch her in school plays, go on field trips…"

"I still love her."

"You sacrificed anything and everything to make sure she was safe and happy."

"That's exactly what I'm doing now."

"You sacrificed your daughter so you can feel useful," Jenny told him. "All that hurt you were trying to save her from growing up… you're the one who caused her the most pain."

"Jenny…"

"And despite everything you've done, despite how much I hate you and who you've become… I'd marry you all over again."

A smile appeared on Bill's lips. He had been sure his wife was chewing him out – calling him on his bullshit. He was sure she wanted to make him hurt as much as he had hurt her and Sarah. But hearing that despite everything, she still wanted to marry him, made him feel better.

Until she stabbed the knife right in his chest.

"I'd marry you again because as much as it hurt to know that this is who you've become, there's no way I'd ever want to leave Sarah alone with a monster like you."

"I'd never hurt her!"

"You have!" Jenny shouted. "And I know you have. I know that, no matter how much this hurts me, this has to hurt her more. I can distance myself from you. I can remarry, I can drop your name. I can move on with my life. Sarah… she'll always be your daughter."

"Jenny…"

"It's a wonder a kid like that could ever come from two people so… so absolutely vile," Jenny said, then turned to leave. "Let me know if you change your mind about all this, Bill. Just know, this window I'm giving you, it gets smaller every time you don't use it. Soon, it will be shut, and I promise, you'll want to get in."


	2. No Better Parent

It wasn't easier to lose a parent for the third time. Unprecedented for sure, but not easier. If anything, Kelly was more hurt and more upset by Anne's death than by the death of either of her parents. While Anne hadn't been the one who raised her, she had been the first mother Kelly had who loved all of her. This was the first home Kelly lived in where she didn't feel like she would either have to hide a whole part of her, or be persecuted for it. She could openly talk about her love for Sarah, or any woman, without fear of being mocked, insulted, or even abandoned by her mother.

Losing Anne was a whole new experience to Kelly. However, since this was the third parent she had lost, she did have the advantage of knowing what to expect as life started to shift back into what felt normal. Being at school, receiving some sympathy looks from teachers and students alike, and even being coddled a bit were all part of the package. Kelly had gotten used to it, and already knew that regardless of how annoying it could get, people did mean well for it.

She tried to pass on that understanding to Hayley. Even though the white Ranger wanted to move on, or at least grieve in private with her family, people were still going to try to do what they could to help. It came from a good place, though it really wasn't necessary.

Mrs. Finch, their teacher, did ease up on the girls a little bit after their return to school. They weren't required to complete their work and were told to just do what they could. It didn't matter if it was the whole assignment, just a fraction, or nothing at all. Mrs. Finch considered it to be a good thing if the girls just showed up. On some days, that helped. On some days, Hayley and Kelly couldn't imagine doing anything more than just show up to school. On other days, they felt they were being underestimated. That was when Kelly's reminders that Mrs. Finch had good intentions would help.

Today was a good day. Today, neither Hayley nor Kelly were feeling too weighed down by Anne's death. With the funeral, and a few weeks, behind them, the worst seemed to be over. Neither girl would wake up expecting Anne to be in the kitchen in the morning. They were no longer wondering why they weren't waking up in their own bed, in their own house.

This wasn't what used to be normal for them, by they were slowly getting used to this new normal. This new life where Anne was nothing more than a memory.

Shop class with Mick didn't change much. On some days, they had shop class. Mick, being their teacher, did need to write a report card for his students that would be reviewed by Principal Hastings. Since it needed to be believable, he needed to make sure he had something to report on. Not to mention, shop class was a real class and the Rangers could benefit from the skills that it taught, both in their personal life and in their Ranger life.

Other days, shop class was Ranger training. Today was one of those days.

Ranger training was great for letting off some steam, especially after Anne's death. While training was never about delivering powerful or painful blows, sparing with someone did allow Hayley and Kelly the opportunity to use up some of that pent-up anger or pain as fuel. They needed energy to fight and their emotions were sometimes so conflicting or confusing that it would lend itself to be that extra push of energy the girls needed.

Today, though, Kelly didn't have that kind of emotional charge. Hayley did, as she was currently taking on both Sarah and Calvin, without signs of slowing down. Kelly watched the white Ranger, and her other teammates train with a bit of a sigh.

Mick sat down next to her.

"One of those days?" he asked. Kelly shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm not quite sure what day it is today," she answered. "I mean, I was fine all day and now…"

"It comes in waves," Mick told her, but Kelly shook her head.

"It's not that. I mean, I am still sad about Anne and I miss her and stuff but… I feel like I'm over the hump. I feel like I've done what I needed to do in regards to saying goodbye and moving past this but…"

"Now what?"

"Yeah," Kelly said with a nod and a frown as she turned to her mentor. "I guess that's it. How did you know?"

"I've been there before," Mick said. "Losing my parents was hard on me too. I was just a boy when I was taken, and once it set in that I would never see them again… I needed some time to get over it. Once I accepted that this was my new life… I found I was asking myself more and more what to do now."

"So what did you do?" Kelly asked.

"I kept busy with work," Mick answered her. "Galvanax and his crew didn't really allow prisoners time to grieve. They kept us working, kept us busy. It was just the nights, really, when I was alone, where I really had time to ask that question."

"And… after a hard day's work, you just slept through it?" Kelly asked. Mick chuckled and shook his head.

"No, not really. Didn't sleep much on the ship. I didn't really talk much with the other prisoners either. I mostly kept to myself."

"You… aren't helping here, Mick."

"I spent years wondering what to do now. Sometimes, I thought I had that question answered. Sometimes, I imagined the answer being to accept my new life as a prisoner, a slave, and just be happy I wasn't dead or being tortured. Other times, I thought the answer was to try and break free. Those times didn't last long. I was often discouraged by seeing the failed attempts of other prisoners."

"So, you're telling me there is no right answer?" Kelly asked. "That, I'll just be asking myself what if questions forever, and the answer will depend on how I'm feeling?"

"I've stopped asking what now," Mick said. "I've stopped wondering where to take my life now, because I've found purpose."

"Being a Ranger mentor?"

"Being a friend to Brody," Mick said with a smile as he glanced over to the red Ranger. "Brody came to me at a time where my question of what now was really daunting. I had been asking it for years with no confirmed answer, no idea of where my life would be headed and suddenly, this child kind of… fell into my lap. Helping Brody through his transition gave my life purpose. As much as I still hated what happened to me, I finally had something to live for again. A reason to wake up in the morning that wasn't just Ripcon or Cosmo forcing me out of bed."

"Hayley isn't an eight-year-old boy forced into slavery, though," Kelly said. "And Sarah's already grieved her father and…"

"You don't need to become someone's mentor to find purpose in your life," Mick told Kelly. "In fact, it wasn't mentoring Brody that gave me purpose. What happened to me, all those questions, those doubts and fears that I had, I didn't want Brody to go through that same thing. My purpose in life was to ensure that Brody never felt like I did. That he never felt alone. No one should have to suffer the way I did."

"Stop Oedius?" Kelly asked. "Is that my what now?"

"That's up to you to decide," Mick said. "You need to figure out what's going to give your new life purpose. Will it be the same thing as before?"

"I… I don't think my life had a real purpose before," Kelly said, the paused for a moment to think. "I… I guess I never really thought about what I was trying to do with my life."

"Interesting," Mick nodded.

"But… I mean, it doesn't feel right to say that Anne's death is giving me purpose," Kelly told Mick with a bit of a frown. "I don't want to think that… that she had to die for me to find my way. Especially not when she's the one who really helped me find my way in the first place. Before Anne and Aaron took me in, I… I didn't really know what would happen with me. I didn't know if I would ever be brave enough to come out to my parents, live my true life, or if I would stay in the closet forever. Once they took me in…"

"Being your true self and having a purpose in your life isn't the same thing," Mick said. "Anne and Aaron, they gave you a real home. They allowed you the freedom to express yourself, and discover who it is you wanted to be without judgement. Now, though it is still tragic, Anne's death does allow you an opportunity few seem to embrace."

"What do I do now?"

"How can you ensure Anne's death wasn't in vain? How can you show Oedius that killing the woman you considered to be your mother was the worst decision she could make?"

"How can I stop her from tearing apart any other families?" Kelly asked, then smiled. "And how can I help the families she did hurt come to terms with what happened."

"If that's what you want," Mick nodded.

"If I'm going to do that, I have to start with kicking her ass," Kelly said as she got up. She zipped up her training uniform fully and smiled at Mick. "Is there still time to train?"

"We've got about ten minutes left."

"Perfect," Kelly smiled, then turned to the others. "Hey, Calvin, Sarah, need a hand?"

"Would it be embarrassing to say yes?" Calvin responded, earning a bit of a chuckle from Hayley.

"Maybe a little," the white Ranger told him.

"It'll be more embarrassing to lose," Sarah said and waved her girlfriend over. "Come help me kick her ass. Loser buys and I'm not paying for my own ice-cream again!"

-Ninja-Steel-

Madam Oedius didn't know Bill was doing this. She didn't need to know everything he did. They had agreed that if he didn't interfere with her taking over the planet, he was free to do as he wanted.

Stepping into the prison was quite nerve-wracking. Considering he had never legally been revived, he was a dead man walking – literally.

Madam Oedius had helped him forge some papers. As far as the prison was concerned, he was a lawyer, looking to see if he could help his client into a better sentence. He was here for an entirely different reason.

He took a seat at the table shortly before a guard escorted Kathryn into the room. To say she was shocked to see him was an understatement. Bill assured the guard that he had things under control, allowing the guard to step out so they could talk privately. Kathryn didn't know what to say. She was expecting to meet with a new lawyer, not a former john.

"You're supposed to be dead."

"You're supposed to be the mother of my child. Life has a funny way of working out, doesn't it?"

"Sarah's too much trouble," Kathryn said with a shake of her head before leaning back in her chair. "Not worth it."

"I disagree, but that's why I'm here."

"You mean you're not getting me out of this hell hole?"

"After what you've done?"

"Hey, I can do what I want with my body. Not my fault some men in suits decided that getting paid for sex was criminal."

"I meant Sarah," Bill frowned. "My wife told me what you did. Kidnapping? Three times?"

"Once was my son," Kathryn said. "I was just bait."

"But you weren't ready to change his mind now, were you?" Bill asked. "You're despicable. I'd never help you out of here."

"So then why are you here?" Kathryn asked. Bill sighed as he leaned forward slightly. He wasn't sure how to say it. He knew Kathryn was aware of Sarah's Ranger duties. When Jenny and Sarah told him about the kidnapping, Sarah had admitted to morphing in front of Kathryn and Drex to ease her escape. Bill had been surprised to hear Kathryn hadn't tried to use it as leverage, though he did hear she had been caught red-handed and her claim that her daughter, who she had successfully kidnapped, was a Power Ranger, would likely be mocked or seen as a last-ditch effort to escape her fate.

"You know those monsters attacking the city?"

"Do I?" Kathryn said while rolling her eyes. "Every time there's a monster, we're locked up in our cells until an hour after the all clear, just in case. You know, we only get so many hours of outdoor time a week."

"I'm working for one of them."

Kathryn appeared shocked at first. Though seeing her formerly dead, former john walk into prison disguised as a lawyer should have been an indication that this wouldn't be a normal visit, hearing that he was now working for a monster was quite the shock. Even when he had been paying her for sex, Bill had been a good man. He always took care of her, never demanded more than he paid for and he treated her well.

Finding out she was pregnant with his baby had been a nightmare, but Kathryn knew it could have been much worse. Any other john could have gotten her pregnant, considering she was rather careless with everyone, and it could have marked the end of her career and the end of her protection from Drex. The fact that Bill had insisted on taking care of Kathryn's medical bills throughout the pregnancy, and wanted to pay for her services, as if she was still sleeping with him, so she and Drex wouldn't lose out on money because of the baby meant Kathryn was able to stay on with Drex and she was able to get back to work with the baby.

After Sarah was born, Drex decided he wanted to keep her. Having a baby on his hip would keep the police away from him and would help him draw in new, unsuspecting girls to his business.

Bill had fought tirelessly for four years to get full custody of his daughter, but Kathryn and Drex were in a habit of hiding out from the police. They couldn't be tracked and without a record of them, there was no one to sue.

When Bill finally did fight for custody, he claimed to be a good man – a good father. He claimed he had changed his ways, so he could better care for his daughter. He did everything he could to help prove that Kathryn was, and always would be unfit to ever see her daughter again, much less care for her. Kathryn still remembered feeling betrayed by a john who she once never believed would hurt her.

So, her shock turned into a small chuckle, then a full out laugh. Kathryn leaned over the table, laughing loudly, with tears coming down her face. Bill watched, unimpressed, as he waited for her to calm down.

"I knew it! I knew you weren't the goody-two-shoes you made yourself out to be!"

"I love my daughter…"

"You're just as bad as me!" Kathryn hollered, still wiping away the tears. "Oh, if only that judge could see how you turned out! Working for a monster?"

"She's no worse than Drex."

"Drex just wanted to make money," Kathryn said. "Your pimp is trying to take over the planet! You do know that the Ranger in pink is _our_ daughter, right?"

"I know."

"And you're working with the bitch trying to get her killed?"

"It's complicated."

"Is anyone hearing this?" Kathryn asked and looked around. While she had been afforded a private talk with who the prison guards believed was her lawyer, she was sure she was still being watched in some way. "Oh, please tell me someone is listening in, because this is rich."

"Kathryn…"

"You remember that day in court, don't you?" Kathryn asked. "How you hopped up on your high horse and painted me as the devil mother…"

"You raised my daughter in a brothel, around hard drugs and abusive men. She could have been killed in your care ten times over before the cops finally found you!"

"There was never a scratch on her."

"The first time I got angry with Sarah, she asked if I was going to put her in a dog cage! She hid under her bed for spilling milk and had nightmares about being…" Bill took a deep breathe. Bringing Sarah home for the first time hadn't been easy. Though she had always been a bright, happy, loving daughter, there had been scars from her former life that Bill knew he would have to erase. "Look, there was a lot of damage that I had to take care of."

"All kids are damaged in some way."

"No they aren't."

"Yes, they are," Kathryn insisted. "But you're not here to talk damages, custody, or getting me out of prison, are you?"

"No."

"So then why are you here? Is that monster going to break me out like she did Drex?"

"Oedius couldn't care less about you," Bill shook his head. "This is about Sarah."

"Hey, she's your kid. Judge said so."

"How did you let her go?" Bill asked. "How do you move on from… from losing her?"

Kathryn started to chuckle again, before realizing Bill's question was serious. She frowned deeply.

"Move on?"

"You said you're done with her," Bill said. "You stopped fighting to get her back years ago. Aside from the kidnappings, of course, but that seemed to be more about work than…"

"She's my daughter," Kathryn said. "I carried her, I gave birth to her. Do you have any idea what I went through to have her?"

"I…"

"Drex refused to take me to the hospital. He refused to have a baby on record anywhere, so I gave birth at home. No drugs. Drex didn't want her coming out deformed, otherwise girls were likely to stay away. I breastfed, because formula was an unnecessary expense and Drex wasn't going to feed her anyway. I got up in the middle of the night when she cried. I taught her to walk, to talk. Did you know her first word was mama?"

"But…"

"I had plans for homeschooling. I know my kidnapping doesn't prove it, but for those four years I had her, I wanted better for Sarah. I wanted her to be smart, strong and not have to fall into a life like mine."

"So then why wouldn't you let me take her?"

"She was my baby," Kathryn said. "I wasn't going to have the state take away another baby. Not when I knew I could be a good mother. So yes, Bill. I am done with Sarah. She's too much work and she doesn't want anything to do with me anyway. She's got a good mother now. But no, I haven't moved on. I miss both my kids every single day of my damn life and I wish I could have done more for them. I wish I had made better choices so they could still be with me."

"You still kidnapped Sarah."

"I needed money or I'd lose Drex' protection. Sarah's exactly what men would pay for. I didn't say I was a good mother. I said I wished I could do better. Regardless of how it looks to you, I love my babies with all my heart.

"But you," Kathryn said, pointing the finger at Bill. "You're a real piece of work. I may have worked for a man who didn't treat Sarah right, who tried to break her spirit and do awful things to her but… you're working for the monster who is trying to kill her? At least, if Drex ever led me to believe he would kill Sarah, I would have stepped in. I wouldn't have just let it happen."

"Madam Oedius and I have a deal."

"Take it from someone who works with monsters for a living," Kathryn said. "A deal is only good until they have to cash in on their end. Then, it becomes worthless and you're the one who gets screwed. You've betrayed my baby and you're going to get her killed in the process. Maybe you aren't a worse parent than me, but you're at least just as bad."


	3. Put In His Place

He had been chewed out twice now. Twice, by two different women.

Bill expected it from his wife. Jenny wasn't happy with the decision he had made to keep her and Sarah safe. She couldn't understand why he would choose to work with Madam Oedius, or why he would allow her to kill another Ranger parent. Jenny didn't understand and Bill didn't expect her to.

He thought he would get a different response from Kathryn. She herself would admit she could never win mother of the year. She had screwed up from the start – to the point where it seemed she had two children taken from her. Bill didn't know about the other – about Sarah's half-sibling – but still, to have a child taken from you completely, you had to be a really bad parent.

Kathryn had moved on from Sarah. She stopped fighting for custody shortly after Bill won and he didn't hear much from her since. He thought that meant she didn't care for her daughter anymore, and while that wasn't what he wanted, he figured she might have some advice for how to let go. He was doing what he thought was right for Sarah, even if she didn't like it. He didn't need her to love and adore him right now. He only needed her safe.

But that was still hard to do when he cared so much about being loved by his daughter. He wanted her to see that though he was making tough, hurtful choices, he was doing it to help her and her friends.

Instead, Kathryn had chewed him out, claiming that he was just as bad a parent as she was. She couldn't believe he would side against his daughter in a war that was likely to kill her.

That had come as a bit of a reality check. If this wasn't the decision Kathryn, a well-known bad mother, would make for her daughter… was Bill really doing the right thing?

"Dammit, I knew this wouldn't work," Oedius said, mostly to herself, as she and Bill watched a fight on the monitor. She had just sent out her latest monster to fight the Rangers, certain that he would be able to do some damage to them while they were still reeling from the white Ranger's mother's death, but it seemed like, instead, they were taking this as an opportunity to let off some steam. The green and the white Ranger especially were fighting hard. They were relentless in their attacks. Nothing seemed to tire them out.

Her monster was strong, but she didn't really expect him to win. Bill knew a lot of the time, she sent out monsters she knew would lose because she cared more about the long-term damage to the Rangers than allowing those monsters to win her battle. Causing a rift in their friendship, even breaking a few bones and weakening the team long enough to guarantee her a win against them was all she needed. Unlike Galvanax, she didn't need to prove she was the strongest and the best warrior. She just needed everyone to see that she couldn't be defeated. They would be loyal and serve her, or they would be met with severe punishment.

It had worked on him, after all. At least, to a certain extent. Certain this monster wouldn't survive the fight, and certain the Rangers weren't going to be any worse off for fighting him, Oedius turned her attention away from the monitor and walked off. Bill knew she was going to plot her next move. He kept watching.

Like Oedius, he knew the monster was going to lose. It was only a matter of time. He didn't think it made a difference if he watched or not, but he was glad he did. He saw the monster go after Sarah in an attack. This wasn't too worrying for him. He had a deal with Oedius. The monsters could attack Sarah, but they couldn't kill her – or severely hurt her. Still, they could act like they would. Oedius said it pushed the other Rangers to come to her defense, making them vulnerable.

But this monster didn't pretend. He found an opening and swung, cutting through her suit. When he saw blood, he was supposed to back off. Instead, he swung again. Kelly jumped to Sarah's defense, protecting her until the others could finish off the monster, but Bill was done. He stormed off, following Oedius down to her room. He stormed through the door.

"He almost killed my daughter!"

"I'm sure you're exaggerating," Oedius said dismissively. She didn't even look up at Bill.

"I just watched him! No blood. You promised!"

"It happens in fights," Oedius told him. "You can't have a battle for the planet without a few drops of blood. Your daughter must have pushed him."

"He didn't back off," Bill frowned. "We had a deal. I work for you, you don't put my daughter in danger. You told that monster that if he drew blood to back off, right?"

"If we made a deal, then I must have," Oedius said as she finally turned to face Bill. "After all, you've been loyal to me. Why would I want to risk that?"

"So then why didn't he stop?" Bill asked. "Why did it take Kelly jumping in to get him to back off?"

"You'll have to ask him," Oedius shrugged just as there was a cry from down the hall, where a few of the foot soldiers had still been watching the battle – too stupid to understand it was a losing one. Their cries indicated the monster had been defeated. "Well, I guess we'll never know."

"You need to make sure you tell every monster not to hurt my daughter," Bill growled as he stepped toward Oedius threateningly. "You make that a priority and you tell them if they do, they won't live long enough to brag about it."

"Excuse me?" Oedius stood up. Now Bill had her full attention. "Are you telling me what to do?"

"We had a deal."

"And is your daughter still alive?" Oedius asked. "Have I not followed through with my end of the bargain?"

"Well…"

"While you're off, talking to your daughter, your wife, your ex-lover…"

"You know about that?"

"I know everything, you idiot!" Oedius shouted. "You don't think that after Aiden, after Drex, that I wouldn't make sure to follow you around to ensure you don't do anything stupid!"

"I…"

"Your loyalty wavers, slave, while I hold up my promise of keeping your precious daughter alive!" Oedius shouted at him. "But if we're going to argue the finer details of this bargain, I may just have to make some new arrangements…"

"I…"

"You could lose everything if you cross me," Oedius reminded him. "You ever question me, or speak to me like that again, and I'll strip you of all the freedom I've granted you and I'll have you chained up, watching helplessly as I slowly and painfully kill your daughter with my own hands. Do you understand me?"

"Y-Yes," Bill answered, his voice wavering as he ducked out of Oedius' room cowardly.

-Ninja-Steel-

"It doesn't look deep," Kelly said as she examined Sarah's fresh wound after their battle. It was routine for them all to be checked up after a fight to be sure there were no lasting injuries. Cuts, scraps and bruises were common, but despite usually being non-threatening, there was always a chance that they indicated something more. When there was blood, the Rangers always wanted to be careful. "I don't think it'll need stitches."

"But it hurts," Sarah whined and looked up at her girlfriend painfully. Kelly chuckled as she started to wrap the wound.

"I used to think of you as superwoman," she said. "When did you let cuts start to hurt you?"

"When she knew she could get you to buy her ice-cream if she whined enough," Calvin said with a bit of a laugh. Sarah frowned at him.

"You're ruining my plan," she said softly.

"Sorry," he answered back teasingly.

"So you really are fine?" Kelly asked the pink Ranger, who nodded her head.

"Yeah… unfortunately," Sarah inspected the bandage when Kelly was done, then sulked as the green Ranger put the first aid kit away.

"No one else needs this, right?"

"We're all good," Brody nodded. "We did really well together, today."

"We do well all the time," Preston said. "Is it just me or, does it feel like Oedius is going easy on us a bit?"

"You think this is easy?" Hayley asked. She still felt a little out of breath. She knew she had put more energy into the battle that she probably should have, but it wasn't often she got to take out her anger over her mother's death on a monster that she could actually kill. "I mean, it hasn't been especially tough but…"

"I don't mean easy like let's stop morphing and tell jokes while we're fighting easy," Preston said. "I just mean… I don't see any of the latest monsters being real threats to us."

"Maybe your dad does really have a deal with Oedius going?" Levi suggested to Sarah, who immediately frowned at the suggestion. Levi chuckled. "I mean, he's got to have a deal going for him to turn like that but… maybe it really is a sweet deal. Maybe… it's possible he's actually trying to help?"

"By killing Anne?"

"I'm just saying," Levi put his hands up defensively as Sarah continued to glare at him. All the Rangers knew to mention her father as little as possible, but Levi thought it needed to be said. "Maybe, if this keeps up, we hear him out next time he reaches out."

"He's reached out," Sarah said.

"And?"

"Nothing justifies what he did."

"I'm not saying that," Levi assured her. "It's just… I've been Oedius' prisoner. I know what she can do. Maybe your dad managed to play his cards right and earn a bit of her trust."

Sarah pointed to her bandage, "I'm the one dad's protecting and I'm the one bleeding. I highly doubt this would be part of the deal he arranged. All these soft monsters have to just be a coincidence."

"Coincidence? Really?" Preston asked. He agreed with Sarah. If her father really had turned on the Rangers, with the big picture being he was really trying to protect them, it didn't make sense that Sarah would return from any battle with injuries – even if they weren't serious. Still, he had known Sarah long enough. She was a woman of science. Everything had to have an explanation. Everything had to have a reason. There was no coincidence for her. "You believe it's a coincidence?"

"I don't believe we have enough evidence to assume dad is really doing everything he can to help us," Sarah said. "And he's not willing to accept our help getting him away from Oedius."

"Sarah…"

"Just let it go," Sarah got up, grabbed her hoverboard and turned to Kelly. "I'll give you a ride home."

"You're okay to…"

"Let's go," Sarah barked at the green Ranger, who quickly reached for her bag and helmet and hurried off after her girlfriend.

"Great," Calvin said, throwing his arms up in the air as he turned to Levi and Preston, "You just had to piss her off with that dad stuff, didn't you?"

"I was just suggesting," Levi said. "I mean, it's got to be more than a coincidence that all these monsters have been a bit too easy, right?"

"Yeah, but you had to say it out loud?" Calvin asked. "Now when I drop Hayley off, I've got to stop for ice-cream on the way."

"Sarah isn't your girlfriend, though."

"Calvin's the ice-cream man," Hayley explained.

"Dude, if Sarah's pissed, all the girls are going to be pissed," Calvin said. "And when you're the only dude in two couples, all the ice-cream duties fall on you."

"Very true," Hayley nodded. "Though, this time can we pick up mint chip. I'm a little tired of strawberry."

"But Sarah's the one upset," Calvin said.

"But I'm your girlfriend," Hayley told him.

"You owe me," Calvin told Levi and Preston as they walked out.


	4. His True Intentions

Though Sarah had offered Kelly a ride home on her hoverboard, Kelly opted to walk. She didn't think it was safe to ride angry and also thought it would be best they use that extra time on their way home to talk about Sarah's reaction to Levi's suggestion.

As they were just leaving the school, Calvin and Hayley drove past them in Calvin's truck, prompting a small laugh from Kelly.

"Looks like you'll be getting some ice-cream after all," she said to her girlfriend, then turned to her. "Though, I don't think that's why you blew up back there."

"I didn't blow up."

"Levi was just making an observation. One we've all made," Kelly said. "Oedius has been sending easier monsters since we've found out your dad was working for her."

"And?"

"No one said you needed to forgive him," Kelly said. "I know I don't think I ever can forgive him. But if what Levi said is true, maybe we can use it to our advantage to really get under Oedius' skin and maybe draw her out before she's ready. Nothing foils a plan like frustration."

"No."

"Sarah," Kelly stopped walking and pulled on her girlfriend's arm. "I hate what your dad did. I hate that it killed Anne, that it took Hayley's mother away from her, that it took away the only real mother I've ever had. I hate that he put you in this position but maybe…"

"I'm not refusing because of that," Sarah shook her head. "I hate my dad for all the reasons you listed. I hate him for Anne, for Hayley, for you and my mom…"

"So if we feel the same way, why are we reacting so differently to Levi's suggestion?"

"Because if dad really is trying to help us… I don't know what to do," Sarah told her girlfriend. "Him helping us doesn't change what he's done but if it's the difference between us winning this war and losing it… I don't know what to do."

"What do you mean?"

"I can't ever forgive him for what he did," Sarah said. "Anne didn't need to die. I know that."

"I agree."

"But if that's what got Oedius to trust him enough for him to be the final nail in her coffin… he'll have made a sacrifice for the greater good. I… I don't want that."

"You want it black and white?" Kelly asked. "You want your dad to either be the hero you always thought he was, or to be a monster?"

"He's a monster now," Sarah said. "I can't… I can't forget about that."

"I get it," Kelly nodded. "I mean… you've met my parents. After everything they've done, I couldn't help but see them as monsters but they're still the people who raised me. I mean, despite their best efforts, I'm still who I am today because of them. It's not black and white there either. I wish it was, because missing them and hating them would be much less confusing but it's not."

"I did the back and forth thing with my mom when I was little," Sarah said. "Trying to forget her, and all the stuff she did, while still accepting that she's my mother and looked after me in her own way was confusing enough. Dad, he was supposed to be the parent I could always count on. It's his footsteps I'm supposed to follow but he's gone off the path and…"

"You're lost?"

"I guess."

"What about Jenny?" Kelly asked. "I mean, she didn't give birth to you, or rescue you but… even with Anne around… I kind of always wished I had a mother like Jenny."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean…" Kelly rubbed the back of her neck, unsure how to get her feelings out without accidently saying anything bad about Anne. She loved her foster mother, and genuinely did see Anne as the mother she so desperately needed. "Jenny never wanted kids, right?"

"Yeah," Sarah nodded. "She only changed her mind because she loved dad, I was a pretty good kid and she thought she would only have to step-parent. Parenting part-time."

"Uh-huh," Kelly nodded her head. "And how did that work out for her? She's now a single parent, with all the responsibilities, the heartache and the scares of a real mother. She's not gaining anything new from this. She's not getting more respect or anything from this. She's just doing it because in spite of how she thought she felt, she grew to love you as her own daughter."

"And I'm honoured she lets me call her mom," Sarah said. "But…"

"You need footprints to follow, follow hers. Shoes to fill: Jenny's. Someone to look up to, to aspire to, to want to fight for: pick the woman who didn't leave, who didn't side against you. I mean, she wasn't there at the beginning, and she wasn't there when you met your father but… despite her being your newest parent, she's clearly the one you've left the biggest mark on, and it's clear you take after her way more than the other two. Your dad showed his true colours. Even if it turns out he's trying to help us in a twisted way, now we know killing someone isn't off the table for him. You aren't like that. And as for Kathryn… well, the apple fell far from the tree on that one, for sure."

"Should I apologize to Levi tomorrow, then?"

"I think he gets it. But it doesn't hurt," Kelly nodded.

"I should probably tell Calvin he doesn't need to pick up the ice-cream, then…"

"Oh, he should still pick it up," Kelly smiled. "Hopefully, this time he gets chocolate. I've really been craving chocolate."

"Think it might help him if we all just settled on one flavour?" Sarah asked with a bit of a laugh. "Make his job a bit easier? Especially now?"

"Hey, when he starts getting cramps, nausea and visits from Aunt Flo monthly, and losing parents to death or Oedius, we can make the ice-cream man's job easier for him. Until then, I think thirty minutes in the frozen section picking out the exact right flavour is just hard enough on him."

"Point taken," Sarah laughed as they walked up the driveway to her house. There was only one car in the driveway, indicating to the girls that Aaron wasn't home yet. Since going back to work, he had learned that his job was a great escape when it came to thinking about his wife. It wasn't uncommon for him to stay a few hours after the end of his day in order to delay going home and missing his wife. It seemed like tonight was one of those nights.

"For the best," Kelly said. "Jenny's probably going to have a million questions when she sees your booboo."

"Okay, it's not a booboo, it's a battle wound," Sarah said. "I may be superwoman, but I do still enjoy a little bit of coddling from my mother after a long day."

"I thought I made you feel better."

"You did. But not my best," Sarah smirked.

"You're a bit of a suck today," Kelly chuckled. "But I have to admit, I kind of like being the tough, sensible one."

As Sarah opened the door and walked into her home, she couldn't help but feel like something was off. She and Kelly both stopped joking around, and Sarah signaled to her girlfriend to wait by the door while she checked around. As she glanced into the kitchen, she noticed her mother standing on the other side of the island, with a man with his back to Sarah. He was both familiar and unfamiliar to the pink Ranger as she stood there. Sarah gave Kelly the signal that it was all clear, but to move carefully.

"Sarah, go back to the Romero's," her mother told her as her father turned around. Jenny snapped at Bill, "Don't you dare look at her!"

"Mom, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Jenny promised the pink Ranger. "Just shocked he had the balls to show up here, considering everything he's risking."

"Sarah…"

"Don't talk to her!" Jenny shouted to her husband once again, then looked to Kelly, "Take her anywhere. Just get her out."

"I won't hurt my daughter," Bill insisted, though he was getting a little tired of saying it. Not because he didn't mean it, but because it should have been without saying.

"You and I sort this out," Jenny told him. "You leave her out of this until we do."

"Jen…"

"Mom, I can stay," Sarah said.

"You go," Jenny said. "Talking to you is exactly what he wants. After what he did, I won't give him that satisfaction."

"Honestly, Jenny," Kelly spoke. "I don't think either of us is comfortable leaving you alone…"

"Oh, for Christ's sake!" Bill shouted, a little louder than he intended. "I'm not here to hurt anyone! I'm here for help!"


	5. The End Of The Deal

Sarah couldn't believe her ears. She didn't want to believe her ears. She had just finished telling Kelly that it would be easier for her if her father sided against her. If things were black and white, she wouldn't have to worry about learning to trust him again, or start to forgive him, or even about the implications for the Fosters and for her relationship with Kelly.

She knew life wasn't black and white – but damn, it sure would be easier if it was.

"I'm here for help, okay," Bill said, lowering his voice to a tone that appeared a lot less threatening than a shout. He was a good man, or so he liked to think he still was, but he knew he did have a voice that could terrify those around him. "I've done a lot of thinking and… you girls are right."

"Finally," Jenny whispered. "You've come to your senses."

"I… I'm caught between a rock and a hard place," Bill told the girls. "Oedius did save my life, and she did keep me prisoner until I not only agreed to help her but agreed that doing so would be helpful to you."

"But…?" Sarah asked, still skeptical about her father. She remembered Aiden agreeing to try and mend fencing, and that had ended with him tying a ribbon around her neck and choking her to the point she passed out. She was sure that had it not been for Brody, he would have killed her. Her father worked for the same monster. It wasn't out of the question to think this could be another ploy.

"You were right. Both of you," her father confessed. "Madam Oedius doesn't really care about our deal." Bill's gaze shifted to the wound on his daughter's arm. It was covered by a bandage and didn't seem to be causing her much pain, but the fact that it was there, and that there was a potential for more proved that Oedius didn't care for the deal he made. She would only keep Sarah safe if it benefitted her in the end. If a Ranger had to die for her to get her way, she couldn't care less if it was red, blue, gold or pink. Bill knew that for sure now. "She's not keeping you safe because I asked her too. She's keeping you safe because it'll keep me working for her. But if she's not happy with me… the deal's off."

"It's her game," Kelly nodded. "You're just a pawn."

"You coming back here, asking for help, doesn't erase what you did," Sarah told her father. "You knew about Anne. You could have stopped it, convinced Oedius of something else, or at least warned us. Instead, you let it happen."

"I know."

"My best friend lost her mother because of you," Sarah said. "Kelly's had to lose another parent because of you."

"And I want to make that right," Bill promised. "I know it's a big ask, but I'll do anything."

"Stop Oedius," Kelly suggested but Sarah shook her head. She didn't want to make it that easy for her father."

"Their mother is dead," she frowned. "You think you can make that right? Who the hell is Hayley going to turn to when she needs a mother?"

"I…"

"You can't replace Anne. You can't just… walk back in here, say you're sorry and expect there's anything you can do to fix it."

"Sarah…"

"He can't!" Sarah said. Kelly grabbed her arm and pulled her away so they could talk. Sarah looked to her girlfriend. "You don't have to pretend any of this is okay."

"I know I don't," Kelly agreed. "Are you kidding? It's taking all I have not to rip him to piece where he stands. He killed Anne. When I look at him, that's all I see."

"So help me tell him where he can shove his apology."

"No," Kelly shook her head. "Look, I hate him, Sarah. Maybe not as much as you, but with everything I have. He's the last person I want to help."

"But?"

"But he's here, Oedius probably doesn't know… we can use that."

"If we can even trust him."

"We take baby steps, but if he's really willing to double cross her, we have to use that. Even if we don't like him and don't want him around, this is our planet we're talking about. Millions of children could lose their mothers if we don't give him a shot here. You can fight and be angry all you want after Oedius is gone, but right now… why can't we use him?"

"It's been going rather well for me," a voice said and the girls turned around to find Oedius standing next to them in the hallway with a sick smirk on her face. Sarah and Kelly were quick to reach for their mothers, but Oedius was just a bit faster. She snatched Kelly, grabbing her by the wrist and twisting the green Ranger until Kelly was in her grasp. She wrapped her arm around Kelly and snatched the Power Star out of her hand just as Sarah finished morphing.

"The green Power Star," Oedius smirked as she held it up while Kelly struggled just to breathe. "You know, I have to admit, this is quite the improvement on my own star. Your doing, I assume?" she asked Sarah.

"Jenny, take Sarah and go," Bill ordered, but Jenny was frozen in place and Sarah wouldn't take her eyes off Oedius holding Kelly. She wasn't going to leave. Bill knew if he was going to get his family out of trouble, he needed to get the attention on him. "Madam Oedius…"

"Didn't I tell you, I know everything?" Oedius asked him. "Did I not just finish telling you that I have eyes on everyone who works for me?"

"My daughter was hurt. Our deal…"

"Our deal was that I don't kill her," Oedius reminded him. "And unless she's started using those clones again, she's still alive, isn't she?"

"Yes, but…"

"And you're here, begging the Rangers to take you in, promising you'll do what you can to make things right with them? I would be an idiot not to assume that meant taking me out."

"You were going to turn on me the first chance you got!" Bill shouted.

"And here we are," Oedius used her free hand to gesture around the room, all while tightening her grip on Kelly with her other arm, emphasising her power over the situation. "You've turned on me."

"Let her go and we can talk about this on the ship," Bill begged her. "I'll take whatever punishment you see fit. I'll cry, scream, plead, whatever you want."

"I think I like this punishment better," Oedius said as she twisted Kelly around again, grabbing her neck with her hand and then slamming her into the wall. As Sarah rushed, trying to intervene, Oedius smacked her away with the other hand, sending her crashing to the floor. As Sarah hurried to get back to her feet, Oedius bashed Kelly into the wall again, while making sure it was her head that took most of the hit.

"The design for the human body is inherently flawed," she said. As Sarah rushed her again, she grabbed the pink Ranger, smirked when she heard Jenny's cry, and threw her to the ground again. Then she smashed Kelly into the wall another time. "You have so much protecting the heart, but very little protecting the head.

"Stop it!" Sarah shouted as she rushed Oedius a third time, only to be swat away again.

"It doesn't take much for it to crack, and yet you need it for everything. Without your head, or more specifically, the brain, your heart can't beat, your lungs can't breathe…"

"Madam Oedius, please," Bill begged as his daughter tried again to save her girlfriend.

"And yet, as important as the head is, some of us fail to use it," Oedius slammed Kelly into the wall one last time before letting her drop to the floor. She turned to Bill, "You no longer work for me. Any deal we have is off. I should warn you, as calculating and careful as I am with my plans, I do hold grudges against those who cross me."

With that, Oedius walked away, disappearing almost as quickly as she appeared. Bill felt his heart sink as he watched his daughter crawl over to the woman she loved, begging for a response. Jenny pushed her way past him to help.

"We have to call 911," she told Sarah, who shook her head. She had Kelly's blood from the back of her head on her hands.

"And tell them what? Oedius struck again? Send the city into total panic with two unexplainable attacks?"

"I'll call Shane, then," Jenny said. It was the only other solution she could think of that might offer a positive outcome. She wasn't a nurse, but she knew bleeding from the head while unconscious was bad.

"What can I do?" Bill asked, desperate to help, but Jenny just pushed past him again as she rushed to her phone. He looked to his daughter. "Sarah, please, let me help."

"Get out," Sarah growled.

"Sarah…"

"Eu nunca mais quero te ver de novo!" Sarah shouted at her father. His head dropped, but he gave a slight nod. She was angry. She had every right to be. If he gave her some space, some time to calm down, maybe she would be more receptive to hearing him out.

Or, at least, she would allow him close enough to chew him out. It wouldn't do anything to repair his relationship with her, but he was sure at this point, all chance for that was gone. He hoped, at the very least, he could help take away some of her pain and grief.

"I'll be here if you need me."

"Vá embora," Sarah said, just as Jenny rushed to her side.

"Shane said he's on his way," she told her daughter. "He just wants us to meet him halfway, save us all some time."

"Halfway where?" Sarah asked, cradling Kelly's limp body in her arms.

"Halfway to Blue Bay. He'll take us the rest of the way there."

At that very moment, the door swung open as Calvin and Hayley arrived home. Calvin held up a couple of grocery bags, not taking a moment to look around before he called out, "Who wants ice-cream?"

"I'll pack up some bags," Jenny told Sarah. "Get her into the car and I'll drive us out. Tell Calvin and Hayley to follow in Nitro."

Sarah nodded her head and very gently lifted her girlfriend, taking care not to move her around too much. As she stepped to the front hallway, Calvin dropped the bags of ice-cream and Hayley let out a loud gasp.

"What happened?"

Sarah couldn't explain as her eyes welled up with tears. Calvin, very gently, reached for Kelly, offering to take her from Sarah.

"Careful! Cal, be careful!"

"I've got this," he promised. Sarah gave a nod, but whimpered as she watched Calvin take Kelly out to the car. Hayley put her arm around her.

"She'll be fine," the white Ranger said. "Who… who did this?"

At that same moment, Bill stepped out from the kitchen. He looked like a kicked puppy, but Hayley didn't care. She already hated him for his role in the murder of her mother. She had held back her rage out of respect for Sarah. As awful as his actions were, he was still her father. But now that Kelly was hurt, and he was once again part of the reason, she couldn't contain herself.

"You sick son of a bitch!" she shouted as she morphed instantly, grabbed him by the shirt and smashed him into the wall. Bill gasped for breath.

"I didn't… intend for…. for this… to happen."

"What the hell did you do to her?"

"Stop it!" Jenny called from the top of the stairs. With a bag on her shoulder she rushed down and grabbed Hayley by the arm. "We have more important things to take care of."

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just finish him off here?" Hayley growled, hate in her voice.

"Because that's not who you are and Kelly's condition might be time sensitive," Jenny said. As Hayley backed away from Bill, allowing him to breathe normally again, Jenny shoved the back in Hayley's hands. "I'm going to stay back here and explain why you girls aren't home to your father. You need to take Kelly halfway to Blue Bay Harbour. When you see an old blue Volkswagen, that's Shane. He'll take care of things from there."

Hayley powered down, shot Bill one last look of hate, then grabbed the bag and stormed out of the house, taking a visibly shaken Sarah with her. Once they were gone, Jenny looked to her husband and pointed to the door.

"I have to clean the blood from the floor and clear out the smell of bleach before Aaron gets home," she told him. Bill nodded his head.

"I didn't want this."

"Just go," Jenny whispered.


	6. Ninja Academy

Just as Jenny had said, halfway to Blue Bay Harbour, a blue Volkswagen showed up on the road. The Rangers pulled over until they saw Shane wave them down, and the followed in Nitro until they reached a beaten dirt road. They followed it until the end, when Shane stopped the van and got out. He rushed over to Nitro, heading straight to the back where Sarah sat with Kelly.

"I've got her," he assured his niece as he gently removed Kelly from the back seat. Tori also hopped out of the van and pointed further into the woods.

"The Academy is this way," she said. "Watch your step. It's a hidden school so there's no trails."

"You'll be able to help her there?" Hayley asked.

"We'll do what we can for her," Tori promised. "The rest is up to her."

"We'll give her the best fighting chance," Shane said with a reassuring smile.

"She's stopped bleeding," Sarah told her uncle. "In the car on the way."

"Then things could be worse," he said. "So what happened? Your mother wasn't very forthcoming with the details on the phone. She just said it was an emergency."

"Dad."

"I heard," Shane responded. "What did he do?"

"He led Oedius right to us," Hayley answered.

"Okay, we don't know that for sure," Calvin stated, and Hayley punched him hard in the arm. Calvin groaned, "What? Well we don't. We just know he was there."

"And you think that's just a coincidence?" Hayley asked.

"I think Sarah's got enough on her plate right now before we go playing the blame game with her father," Calvin whispered. "I get you hate the guy, and I do too, but how about we just stick to the facts for now?"

"He's hurt my mom and my sister, and I don't get to hate him?"

"You do," Calvin assured her. "Hayley, honey, I get it. I really do but pinning the blame on him right now isn't going to help Kelly."

"How about we just ask what happened and focus on Kelly, then?" Tori suggested. "We can deal with the why and who to blame once we're sure she'll be okay? Fair?"

Hayley clenched her fists but nodded her head. She was angry, but Tori and Calvin were right. The focus needed to be on helping Kelly and throwing around blame wouldn't change what happened. It would only work her up further.

She wasn't proud with what she had done to Bill upon seeing Kelly hurt. It wasn't like her to lash out in anger like that. It wasn't a part of her nature to want to kill anyone. She believed in innocent until proven guilty and giving second chances. It wasn't all that long ago, she hated Kelly for hurting Sarah, and now the green Ranger wasn't just her friend, but her sister. People who wanted to make things right and change for the better deserved a chance to do so.

But Bill had targeted her family twice now. He had succeeded in killing her mother, and Kelly's life was hanging in the balance. Hayley wasn't sure she could ever forgive that. However, it would do her no good to be angry now. Once she had a clear head and knew more about Kelly, she could reconsider how she wanted to handle Bill.

"It was so fast," Sarah said. "Oedius just showed up and before I could do anything, she had Kelly. She just... smashed her into the wall again and again and… I tried to stop her. I did!"

"I know," Shane assured her.

"Oedius pushed me down like I was nothing. I couldn't stop her by myself."

"You did everything you could," Shane told her, trying to keep her calm. "She knows that. We all do."

"We're here," Tori said, pushing some branched out of the way to reveal a small lake at the base of a waterfall. Calvin stepped out of the bush and had a quick look around.

"You call this an Academy? Our football field is bigger than this."

Tori stepped past him and made her way to the water. As she stepped into the lake, she seemed to float above the water as if walking on solid ground. Calvin's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

"Dude, can you teach me that?"

"Maybe one day, for now, you have access. Follow me, be sure to step where I step." Tori made sure her path was clear as she first guided Calvin, then Hayley, then Sarah into the Wind Ninja Academy. As they passed under the waterfall, the cliff behind it seemed to disappear and was instead replaced with the school grounds. It was miles of land and in the middle, overseeing everything and everyone, was the Academy."

"Ninja Ops is this way," Tori said, pointing away from the building. "Cam's there. He'll be able to help Kelly. Shane will take you there while I inform the rest of your team on where to find you. I'm sure they'll want to be here too."

"Thank you," Hayley whispered, then followed Shane out. Tori watched them go as Blake walked up beside her.

"That's Shane's niece?" he asked. Tori nodded her head.

"In pink."

"So, they're the new ninjas, huh?"

"They are."

"They're the reason you've had to work overtime to cover his ass?"

"It's family, Blake. You should know better than anyone, you do everything you can for family."

"I know," Blake smiled. "It's just nice finally putting a face to the name."

"I'm gonna stay and help," Tori told him. "Kelly, their green, is in a pretty bad way and so far, they aren't handling it well."

"You do what you need," Blake assured her. "Don't worry. Kaylee and I will manage on our own for dinner."

"Okay, but no more Happy Meals," Tori frowned. "There's not a single exercise in the world that's good enough to undo three Happy Meals in a row."

"Fine, but I'll tell her it's mommy's fault she's being forced to eat her veggies."

"As long as she eats them," Tori sighed. "Just… tell her once I get off work, I'll give her the whole weekend, just us."

"She'll be thrilled," Blake said, then kissed his wife on the cheek.

-Ninja-Steel-

Shane brought Kelly and the others to Ninja Ops, where Cam was waiting for them with a cot and some medical supplies already set up. Shane had called him on the way, informing him of what he knew so Cam could be ready to help as soon as they arrive. Shane set the young green Ranger down gently on the cot, taking care not to move her head around too much and then looked to his old friend.

"You've got to do everything you can for her," he begged softly so the others wouldn't hear. He had complete faith in Cam, and knew the Samurai Ranger would do everything in his power to help, but Kelly was practically family now and he wanted nothing less than the best.

He also didn't want Sarah to hear him insist Cam do her best. He was a stranger to her niece and she was already trusting him with so much. She didn't need to hear her uncle question him, even for a moment.

"I've got this," Cam promised. "Just… take them outside. They don't need to stay and watch."

Shane gave a nod and patted his friend on the back before leading the three younger ninjas outside. He walked them to a meditation garden where he knew they could sit and wait.

"Cam's the best," Shane assured them. "He's the headmaster here, and as careful as we tell our students to be, there's always someone getting hurt. Between being a Ranger and being headmaster, he's seen every cut, scrap, bruise and gash in the book. And probably more blood than anyone. Kelly couldn't be in better hands right now."

"This place is pretty sweet," Calvin said. He was concerned for Kelly. The bleeding had stopped on the way, but there had been a lot of blood before that. Sarah's shirt was stained with it still and he was sure there was a mess he would have to clean up in the back of his truck.

But he knew worrying wouldn't help. Fretting over the details that were out of his hand would only work him up more than necessary. Not to mention, the two girls next to him had a lot more to lose than he did. While Kelly was a dear friend to him, she wasn't his sister or his girlfriend. If he could stay calm, he knew it would help them both to keep their emotions in check as well.

"Has this always been here?"

"For a couple centuries now," Shane nodded his head. "The Wind Ninja Academy was built here in Blue Bay Harbour to guard against the Abyss of Evil. Not that anyone really cared to tell us that before the last minute."

"The Abyss of Evil?" Calvin asked.

"It's basically hell for monsters," Shane said. "Only if it pops open, they come crawling out again and you've got to send them all back."

"I read about that at the Ranger museum. Your team took on hundreds of monsters at once."

"Wasn't easy," Shane said. "But when you've beat them once, you know what works so it is a little easier the second time around. Besides, Dustin, Tori and I, we really only focused on Lothor."

"Your Oedius?"

"Kind of. Less cunning but not quite as… brutish as Galvanax, I guess. Somewhere in the middle. He totalled this place right before we became Rangers. Sucked up all our students and sensei into the sky but the three of us, our head sensei and Cam. He did the same with the other Academies on the planet too."

"There are more?"

"A few in America and some all around the world. We like to keep an eye on things. Step in when we're really needed to keep the peace."

"So, can we train here?"

"Maybe once you're done saving the world, we can figure something out," Shane agreed. "I think it might be pretty sweet to take on a few new students for some private lessons."

"So, now that we've been here, will that waterfall always take us here?" Calvin asked as he pointed to where they had come in. "Or is there like a passcode or something that keeps people out."

"Kind of both," Shane answered with a bit of a chuckle. "You know the way in, but we do have guards keeping watch of our entrance all the time. If someone we don't want tries to enter, they deter them with as much force as necessary. Usually, though, people just want to bath quickly in the water. They don't even think to look for a secret Ninja School."

"Good point, I guess," Calvin nodded his head. "I guess if I hadn't become a Ranger, I'd never think to look around for a place like this."

"You're more than welcome to tour the grounds, if you want," Shane suggested to the yellow Ranger. "The students here are mostly helpful and very friendly, and it's expected they're able to tell you all about the history and significance of things around here. Just make sure not to wander anywhere that's private. And we'll make sure you know as soon as there's an update with Kelly."

"Beats sitting around here," Calvin said and then turned to the girls, "Wanna have a look around? Looks pretty cool."

Sarah didn't respond to his request at all, but Hayley gave a little nod and started to follow him as he tried to find where he wanted to go first. Shane took a seat next to Sarah on the bench and when the couple was gone, he gave her a little nudge. "Hey, these things happen."

"Is it wrong to wish dad had actually died?" Sarah asked and looked up to her uncle, hoping he would tell her no, but certain he would say yes. It was wrong to wish anyone dead.

"Do you mean that?" Shane asked. Sarah shrugged.

"At least if he had died when we thought he did… he wouldn't be working for Oedius, Anne would still be alive and we wouldn't have had to rush Kelly to a secret Ninja school in the middle of nowhere. Now he's alive, but Anne's dead and Kelly…"

"She's going to be fine."

"You don't know that," Sarah growled.

"I know she's getting the best care."

"And I'm sure that's what they told Aaron right before they had to break the news his wife was dead."

"Sarah…"

"And all dad can say for himself is that he had to do it. I can't sleep, Shane. I can barely look my girlfriend and my best friend in the eyes because I'm scared that they secretly hate me!"

"I don't think they do."

"My dad killed their mom," Sarah said. "I wanted to believe him so much and it all turned out to be a lie. If I had just… turned him away, none of this would have happened."

"You don't know that," Shane told her, then put his arm around her. "And besides, what reason could you have for turning your father away."

"Mick watched him die. And dead people don't just get up and find their way home. I smelled of trap from the get-go and I thought I was being careful, but I really just wanted my dad back."

"And where's the fault in that?"

"Anne's dead! Kelly's probably going to die…"

"Sarah…"

"And I want to hate him so much. I try. Every second of every day, I try to hate him but at the end of every day he's still…"

"He's your dad," Shane said with a nod. "Have you talked to anyone about this?"

"Like who?"

"Didn't Brody go through something similar? I remember Aiden caused a pretty big rift between the two of you."

"Aiden turned out to be a robot implanted with Levi's memories to pose as Brody's brother. He wasn't Aiden. Dad… dad is dad. He's not a robot or brainwashed."

"He's not," Shane agreed. "But… from what I understand, Oedius did do some pretty twisted things to him. She rescued him when he was in a bad way. Kept him prisoner while he was at his most vulnerable, then threatened his family, the people he loves most, unless he agreed to work for her? You don't agree to that when you're able to think clearly… or freely, really."

"So… so what?"

"So, I'm saying, maybe there's a reason you can't hate him as much as you want," Shane suggested. "Maybe because you know he's your father, and because you know who your father really is, you know that if he really were acting for himself, he wouldn't do any of this."

"But what he did…"

"Unforgivable," Shane nodded in complete agreement. "He can't take that back but… let's think about this for a second. Anne was killed by Oedius, right? Bill just knew about it beforehand and didn't stop it… out of fear?"

"As far as he was concerned, Oedius would either kill Anne, or mom or me. At least, that's what he says. Someone was going to die."

"So, your dad didn't actually kill her. He didn't stop it, but he didn't kill her."

"Accessory to murder is just as guilty."

"Right, but your father didn't do the act himself. So, it's possible that, if Oedius had left it up to him, he may have chickened out. It's easier to shut up about a murder than to commit one. And with Kelly… the reason we couldn't take her to the hospital was because it was Oedius who attacked her, right?"

"We can't have people thinking she's starting a killing spree. She's attacking Rangers and their families. There's no reason to think the public in anymore danger than normal."

"Your father didn't hurt Kelly. It's up in the air whether he helped Oedius into your house, but he didn't actually hurt her, or you, did he?"

"No."

"So as vile as his actions are… maybe there's still hope for him. And as angry as you are with him, and with what happened, maybe you know that. Maybe that's why you don't hate him."

"I don't know if I can forgive him, though. And I hate that, once this all blows over, no matter how it all blows over, this is what I'm going to remember most about dad."

"Me too," Shane said. "I trusted him too. With my sister, with you. I hate that he broke that trust."

"So what now?"

"We sit here and we hope Kelly's going to be fine," Shane said with a smile, then looked over as he saw Tori approaching with the bag Jenny had packed. They had left it in Calvin's truck in their rush to get Kelly some help and Tori had gone back to get it, certain there were items in the bag that would be needed.

"You can change your shirt," she suggested gently, not sure about Sarah's state of mind right now. It was likely she was still so upset, she would snap at even the kindest of offers. "I can take that one to get washed."

"Thanks," Sarah whispered as she took the bag and reached for the extra shirt her mother had packed. She changed quickly, offering Tori her blood-stained shirt.

"I'll get this washed and I'll get a room set up for you and the Rangers in the Academy. You can all stay as long as you need."

"Thanks."

"Thanks, Tor," Shane smiled at his friend.

"Just be sure to update me when you know anything about Kelly," Tori asked and Shane nodded his head.

"Will do. I think we'll just be waiting here until we know something," he said, turning to Sarah for confirmation and she nodded. As tempting as it was to get up, walk around and distract herself, she really wanted to be close by in case she was needed.

"I'll come back when I'm done, then," Tori promised.


	7. Kelly's Condition

Preston didn't know where the Wind Ninja Academy was, and if he was honest, before today, he never cared much for it. From Brody, Dane and Levi he knew it was a ninja school, hidden somewhere in the mountains of Blue Bay Harbour. It was the home of the Wind Ninja Rangers from the Ninja Storm team. Though he himself was a ninja and knew it would be useful to hone those skills, magic was more of his passion. He was only a ninja because the powers that made him a Ranger were centered around the way of the ninja.

But today, unlike any other day, he desperately wanted to know the location of the Wind Ninja Academy. Today, he couldn't get there fast enough.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" he asked Dane as he checked out the window, seeing they had lost all signs of any road or path and were now just driving through the trees. He ducked, though he was in the car, as a branch passed over them, narrowly missing the roof.

"I'm positive."

"But there's no road."

"It's a Ninja Academy," Brody said. "A road would kind of defeat the purpose."

Preston had to trust that his friends knew what they were doing and so sat back in his seat and tried to relax. He knew he wouldn't be able to, though. He had just gotten word that there had been an attack at Sarah's house. Bill had come, claiming he now wanted help breaking away from Oedius. Apparently, shortly after he started to make his plea to his family, Oedius had appeared and launched her latest attack.

Preston didn't know the details. Only Sarah and Jenny had been present when this took place. Jenny was busy keeping Aaron in the dark about what happened and Sarah… well, he hadn't spoken to her yet, but since it was Kelly who had been hurt, he just knew his best friend would need him there.

He was reassured they were going the right way when a van appeared in the middle of the woods. Dane stopped his car and the boys all hopped out. Preston started to look around as the Romero family walked up to the van.

"So the Academy is here somewhere?" he asked. Dane shook his head and pointed further into the forest.

"We've got to walk."

"How far?"

"You'll know when we get there," Dane insisted. The walk might have taken ten minutes for them, maybe a little more, but to Preston it felt like ten hours. When they finally reached a waterfall, he knew this had to be it. After all, there was nowhere else to go.

"Here?"

"Here," Dane confirmed, but Preston wasn't too sure when he saw the older man, the only one who really knew where he was supposed to be going, looking around. "And if I remember it right, we're about to be attacked by guards…"

"They're expecting you," Tori said, appearing from behind a tree. Preston never would have assumed she was there, though to be fair, he hadn't been looking for her. "I'll take you inside."

"Lead the way," Dane nodded. Preston watched as Tori made her way to the lake then stepped on it, as if it was solid ground. She made her way across to the waterfall and then just, disappeared.

"That's cool," Brody smiled. "So, it's… in the mountain?"

"How can it be in the mountain?" Preston asked.

"Maybe it is the mountain," Levi suggested with a bit of a smirk, then gave Preston a pat on the back when he saw the blue Ranger was having a bit of trouble. "Oh, come on, Presto. You're a magician. You can't tell me you find it hard to believe a whole academy is hidden in a mountain."

"It's because I'm a magician that I find it hard to believe that anyone could built a secret academy inside a mountain," Preston stated. Despite his trouble believing, he knew he didn't really have the time to talk about how they kept the Academy hidden or the magic behind it. Instead, with the others, he followed Tori inside.

Inside really didn't help him understand the Academy any better. It was huge! Bigger than the mountain appeared, at least. And, for a school built inside a mountain, like Levi had suggested, there was a lot of open sky. Nothing but open sky.

"Maybe the mountain isn't really there?" Brody suggested with a shrug. Unlike Preston, he could discuss the Ninja Academy for hours. Hell, he wanted to train here, just like his father. If it was an impressive as it looked, maybe he'd even live here someday. However, like Preston, he wasn't here for the Academy. His friend was hurt. He was here for her.

"Cam's working on Kelly as we speak," Tori explained as she started to walk to Ninja Ops. In his time as a student, Dane had heard rumours that there was a secret bunker in the Academy in case of an attack, but it had never been confirmed. After Lothor was defeated, Ninja Ops had been revealed. It was still used as a bunker in case of a future attack but was no longer secret. The school's top senseis, which in this case happened to be the former Rangers, used it as something of a teacher's lounge. A place to escape when their students were driving them a little crazy. Barring emergencies, students and part-times senseis were not allowed inside. "We're expecting an update soon."

"How long has it been?" Dane asked while the boys looked around. The Academy was different from what he remembered, and it was still incredible to look at, but right now his focus was on Kelly and finding out what happened to her. All the Rangers were worried, so the more he could learn, the more he could help and the better he hoped he could make everyone feel.

"It's been a couple of hours since she arrived," Tori said. "But it's a head injury and those can be a little finicky."

"Did Sarah say what happened?" Preston asked.

"Just that Oedius appeared," Tori answered, "and she used Kelly's head as a hammer… I guess. Sarah's there, if you want to ask her yourself. Calvin and Hayley are off touring the Academy, keeping themselves busy."

Tori gestured to a garden where Sarah and her uncle were sitting, waiting on news. Preston rushed over and knelt before Sarah. She looked at him with something of a sad smile. She wasn't crying now, but it was more than obvious to the blue Ranger that she had cried a lot already and recently.

"We came as soon as we could," he said and placed his hand on her leg. Sarah put her hand on top of his.

"Thanks."

"Any news?" Tori asked as she and the Romeros walked over. Shane shook his head.

"Nothing, but we know how Cam likes to be thorough," he said, less as a reminder to Tori and more as a comfort to Sarah. The time it was taking to receive any update at all was worrying, but Shane didn't want his niece to panic because Cam could sometimes focus too much on the details.

"Do you think your dad was in on this?" Preston asked Sarah, who shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know," she said. "I… All I know right now is that when he's involved, it's not good."

"Here, why don't you fill him in?" Shane suggested to Sarah as he got up from his seat and offered it to Preston. He then walked to the edge of the garden with Tori, Dane, Levi and Brody. He glanced to his niece to be sure she couldn't hear and that she was focused on Preston, before he looked back to the others. "I'm really worried."

"But you just said…"

"I know," Shane nodded to Brody, then turned back to Tori. "Cam's thorough but… he wouldn't have left us hanging like this if there was good news. If she had woken up or something… he'd have taken a second to tell us, right?"

"He does get caught up in his work," Tori said, but even she didn't seem sure, causing Brody, Levi and Dane to feel something bubble uncomfortably in their stomachs.

"Can you check up on him?" Shane asked. "You make him the least cranky."

"I can try, I guess," Tori agreed. She looked to Preston and Sarah and saw they were distracted before she made her way down to Ninja Ops. Inside, she saw Cam doing more to keep Kelly comfortable than anything. As he finished checking her heart rate, he looked to the blue Ranger with tired eyes. It had only been a couple of hours since he had started working but it was clear he had put everything he had into helping the young Ranger.

"If you're here for an update, she's stable," he stated bluntly and confirmed what Shane believed. While all the Ninja Storm Rangers were Cam's closest and dearest friends, he had always been a bit impatient. They liked to goof around and have fun, and especially when they were younger, they didn't take life, or their responsibilities too seriously. He had always been the opposite and so their carefree nature drove him crazy.

He had a soft spot for Tori, though. Neither of them really knew why, but the best explanation anyone had, which Dustin had come up with, was that it was because of the six of them, Tori was the most like Cam. She was responsible and driven and took care in her work. She had been like the other guys and was often late to training and would spend her days at the beach instead of at the Academy, but when it was something important, she was dependable. Cam had always been able to trust her to get the job done or to help him with any task. As a result, he tried to be more patient with her.

"That's all you have?"

"If I had more, I'd say it," Cam said with a growl. Tori knew not to take it personally – perhaps another reason Cam was softer with her. He never meant to be mean or hostile to anyone. It was just that sometimes he was overworked and underappreciated and he let his frustrations out on the first poor soul to ask him something. Tori understood that. "Her head's been bashed in pretty good, and while the bleeding's stopped and I've reduced some of the swelling, we won't actually know if there's any long-term damage, or just damage in general, until she wakes up – if she wakes up, rather. For now, she's stable. She won't die anytime soon but I can't promise she'll wake up, either. For now, I've just got to keep an eye on her and make sure I didn't miss anything."

"Can they see her?" Tori asked. "I think that's what everyone's waiting for. And the rest of her team is here too."

"I really don't want this place getting too crowded."

"How about you rest up in the back and I'll watch her and the others as they come see her?"

"I…"

"Cam, I can read a computer," Tori assured him. "Besides, won't it beep if something happens?"

"Yes."

"So a monkey could handle this," Tori told him. "If it beeps, I'll just grab you and kick the others out."

"Fine. A rest sounds good anyway," Cam said. He got up from his chair and headed towards the back room. Before he could open the door, he heard Tori call his name. He turned around and grumbled a near voiceless, "What?"

"Thank you, Cam," Tori told him and flashed one of her sincerely grateful smiles – the one that always showed Cam, and anyone she talked to – that she appreciated him. He gave a little nod, then disappeared.

Tori made her way to Kelly's cot and knelt beside the young green Ranger. Cam wanting to keep the others outside when they were worried about their friend seemed a little heartless, but as Tori looked to Kelly, then around at Ninja Ops, she remembered how crowded it used to feel with her team when they were all inside. It was big enough to house them all, sometimes overnight, but Ninja Ops hadn't really been designed to keep so many people.

So, she texted Shane with an update, letting him know everything that Cam had said so he could share the news with the younger Ninjas. It would at least assure them that their worst fears weren't a reality and they could breathe a little.

Then, at the end of her message, she asked that only two of them come down to see Kelly – at least, only two at a time. This way, Sarah could visit her girlfriend and one of her friends could be with her to comfort her. Kelly looked comfortable, but that wasn't the truth.

Not long after she sent the text, Sarah came down the stairs with Preston. Tears welled up in her eyes as she made her way over to the cot and sat down next to her girlfriend. She took Kelly's hand very gently, then didn't say anything. Preston kept his distance. Tori made her way over to him.

"It's not bad news," Preston said as she got closer. "I mean, it's not good but… it's not bad, at least. It could be worse."

"It could."

"Sarah had a head injury," Preston said. "Has one… I guess. Princess Viera kind of fixed it… though Sarah can read alien languages but not English now."

"Sounds complicated."

"But she's okay," Preston continued. "Sarah's hurt her head bad and she's okay. Violent and stuttering… but we could manage that… kind of. So… if that's what happens to Kelly, we can figure it out. So it's not bad."

"We see our fair share of head injuries here," Tori nodded. "We always try to be careful, and we teach our students to be careful too but… mistakes are part of life and sometimes the consequences can be pretty severe. We do offer around the clock care for those students and can easily look after Kelly's needs."

"If she wakes up?" Preston asked.

"Or if she doesn't," Tori said, not to worry him, but to assure him that there was a plan in place for any situation. It could be hours, days, or even months before Kelly showed any signs of life. Knowing she would be cared for, by people who knew what they were doing, would be something of a reassurance to her friends. "Hopefully, she does, though. I'm pulling for her."

"What do we do in the meantime?" Preston asked. "I mean… there's still six of us. The Prism only intended for six Rangers but… we've gotten used to fighting with Kelly. If Oedius attacks again…"

You'll figure it out," Tori promised him. "You'll feel a little overpowered at first but you'll figure out how to compensate. You'll use that to drive you forward."

"Without our friend?"

"For your friend," Tori stated. "I don't know Kelly but if she's a Ranger then we've got something in common for sure."

"Spandex?"

"No," Tori chuckled. "What we have in common, all of us, is that we want to protect this planet. I know if this was my team, and if it was me laying there, I'd want them to fight with everything they've got, and not do something stupid to avenge me. I'd want them to find a way to win without me. If that makes them a better team, or if it gets to the point where they started to feel like they never needed me, that's better."

"That's better?"

"The earth is the priority when you're a Ranger. As a friend, I hope they're torn up inside," Tori assured him. "But as a Ranger, the sooner they can learn to do things well without me, the happier I'll be."

"I… I guess me too," Preston said. "I mean… I'd take a hit for my friends any day, without question and… I guess while I'd hope they'd miss me… I wouldn't want me being hurt to weaken them."

"Preston," Sarah called and waved him over, interrupting his conversation with Tori. He approached the pink Ranger. Sarah placed his hand on Kelly's. "Promise me something."

"What? Anything you need, Sarah, you know I'm here."

"Don't leave her side."

Preston frowned, "What?"

"I've got to go."

"Where?"

"When she wakes up, I want you to be the first one she sees if I'm not back. Promise her I'll be back."

"Sarah, where are you going?"

"Just stay with Kelly, please."

"Tell me," Preston begged, but Sarah shook her head and quickly hurried out. He tried to snatch her arm, but she was already up the stairs. He didn't like where she was going, or what she potentially had planned, but as he glanced down at Kelly, he found he couldn't leave her. He had promised Sarah he would do whatever he could to help her. She had asked him to stay with Kelly. Regardless of what she had on her mind right now, and the recklessness of it, leaving Kelly with Preston had to give Sarah some sort of comfort.

So he turned to Tori, pleading she do something. Before he could ask, though, she held up her phone.

"Anyone you think can get through to her _before_ she does something stupid?"

Preston didn't want to think Sarah would do anything stupid. She was smart… though she could be a little impulsive when she was feeling passionate about something. She had gotten a bit carried away with her clones. She never intended to put herself or anyone in any danger and he didn't want to think that had changed.

But Kelly was hurt, Bill was part of the reason why and Sarah was still reeling from her father's betrayal. If the team waiting outside couldn't talk her down, he needed to think of someone she might listen to.

Or, at least, someone who could stop her.


	8. Who To Blame?

Hayley couldn't believe what she was hearing. Just about a month after losing her mother, her sister had fallen into a coma. Her world had already been crumbling and now it felt like it had completely fallen apart.

"But she'll wake up?" she asked, looking to the blue Ranger hopefully. Tori couldn't really answer.

"I mean, it's possible. I can't say when though, or even if. But Cam did everything he could and…"

"I don't care what he did; will Kelly wake up?" Hayley snapped. She knew it wasn't right to take out her anger on Tori. She hadn't been the cause of this. In fact, she and her team had gone out of their way to help. They had done so much already.

But Hayley was scared. Calvin put his arms around her and held her tight, offering her some comfort while he looked to Tori.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" he asked.

"Just sit with her, I guess."

"And what about Sarah?" Preston asked, still concerned about his friend. He had promised her he wouldn't leave Kelly's side in case she woke up. Sarah wanted her girlfriend to know that she would be there as soon as possible and to know she was safe with friends until Sarah's return. Preston had wanted to go after Sarah when she left, but couldn't leave Kelly's side.

"Gia's on it."

-Ninja-Steel-

"You know, if I hadn't gone into education, I think I would make a good police officer," Serena stated to Gia as they arrived in Summer Cove.

"What makes you say that?" Gia asked.

"Well, I was a Ranger, for starters."

"And?"

"Doesn't that help?"

"Not as much as you'd think," Gia answered. "I mean, it gives you a sense of purpose and the skills from training definitely transfer to policing but… as Rangers we didn't really have to follow or really know the law. You just stopped anything that was about six feet tall and monster-like."

"Good point," Serena chuckled, then pointed down the street, "Sarah lives there."

"You think she went home?"

"She might have. Her mother knows she's a Ranger, and Tori said she was home during the attack. She could have gone home to make sure her mother's okay."

"Worth a shot, I guess," Gia agreed.

They walked up to Sarah's house and knocked on the door. Both women expected Jenny to answer, but instead the door opened to reveal a man. Serena immediately remembered that since Anne's death, the Fosters had been living with the Thompsons, unable to return home where Anne was killed.

Aaron answered the door and was a little surprised to see a Silver Guardian on the doorstep. He was immediately worried. The girls were all out for the night, according to Jenny, and the two of them had just been home, minding their business like a regular night. There wasn't a reason for the Guardians to suddenly show up.

"Mr. Foster," one whispered to the other – the one in uniform. She looked to him with a smile.

"Mr. Foster," Gia said. She recognized Foster and Hayley's name. Since it had been her team that had handled the fallout of Oedius' attack on his wife, she recognized the name and was now no longer surprised to see him staying with a friend. "Good evening. How are you?"

"Good. Uh… I hope you don't mind but… is everything okay? Cops suddenly showing up at my door is a bit… worrying."

"I get it," Gia nodded. "We were just wondering if Sarah was home."

"The girls are all out at a friend's house," Aaron answered, though there was doubt in his voice. He couldn't help but wonder why the police would show up here, if Sarah hadn't been home all night. "Why, is she in trouble? I promise you, she's a good kid. All three of the girls are and…"

"It's okay, Mr. Foster, they aren't in trouble," Gia promised him. He was very visibly concerned and she knew exactly why, so she wanted to keep this interaction as light and as friendly as possible. "I'm the one who worked on Sarah's kidnapping case and I like to follow up from time to time. Incidents like that can be very traumatic and as Silver Guardians, we have a lot of resources to help victims."

"Oh… well, I have to say, that's actually really kind of you," Mr. Foster said and a smile appeared on his face. "Sarah's been doing well, lately, as far as I know. Her mother didn't say when she was expected home, but you can stop by again later this week, if you want."

"If she's doing well, that's all that's important," Gia smiled. "She's got my contact. When you see her, let her know I stopped by."

"I will," Aaron promised. "Have a good night, officer."

"You too," Gia nodded and thanked him as he shut the door. As they walked down the driveway, she turned to Serena. "Well, she didn't come home, and everything seems normal there."

"I might know where she went, then."

-Ninja-Steel-

This was the place where she had gone to meet her father after his betrayal. When she needed to yell at him and when she needed his answer for why, he had met her here. He hadn't given her answers, or even a reasonable explanation, but he had shown up.

She wasn't sure she wanted to see him again. After Anne's death and now the attack on Kelly, she wasn't sure what she wanted, if anything, from her father. She just came here because she knew this would be the best place to get some answers.

Her father didn't show up, though. There was no meeting scheduled, but there hadn't been before, and he had come. Sarah sat on a rock, by herself, wondering what she would do next.

Her talk with her uncle had helped a bit. At least now she knew why her father's actions had caused her so much conflict. He was still her father and she still loved him. Part of her was still holding onto hope that he hadn't completely betrayed her and that he was, as he claimed, stuck in a bad situation and trying to make the best of it. However, there was another part of her that felt like he had turned, and that wanted him to have betrayed her, because then it would be easier to cut him loose. He would be like every other monster out there.

"Mind if we sit?" a gentle voice asked and Sarah looked over her shoulder to see Gia and Serena approaching. Serena was first to make her way over and when Sarah gave a nod, she sat down. "Waiting on someone?"

"Not sure. How's Kelly?"

"No updates," Serena answered. "Think maybe that's where you're supposed to be?"

Sarah shrugged her shoulders. What if Kelly never woke up? Worse: what if Kelly did wake up and found a reason to blame Sarah for this. She wanted to trust her father after all, and slowly brought him back into her live, and by extension, Kelly's life.

Sarah's chin started to tremble. She bit her lip in hopes of stopping it, or at least hiding it, but it was too strong. Gia knelt before her, a gentle smile on her lips.

"This is hard," she told the pink Ranger. "It's family against your friends. Someone you should be able to trust and people who have earned your trust. They're both pulling you and you don't know where to go."

"Has this happened to you?" Sarah asked and thought maybe, if Serena or Gia could tell her that it had, it might make everything just a little better. They were good people, doing well right now. If they could survive this, so could she.

"Not personally," Gia shook her head and Serena did the same. "Family and friends usually lined up. Sometimes with me, sometimes against, but they were always on the same side."

"Same here," Serena said.

"Their lives are ruined because of my dad," Sarah said. "We can't bring Anne back and if Kelly's gone too…"

"She's not. Not yet," Serena assured the youngest Ranger. "She's still back at the Academy. She's fighting with everything she's got. She wants to come back…"

"But it's because of my dad that…"

"You are not your father," Gia stated, her voice a little harder than Sarah wanted, but it was strong enough to get the pink Ranger to listen. "I've said it to Emma, I'm going to say it to you. Just because your father's a piece of shit, that doesn't mean you are too."

"You've said that to Emma?"

"Her father's a dick," Gia nodded her head. "Did some bad things before he died that really weighed heavily on Emma."

"And your friends see that," Serena smiled to Sarah. "They already know that you aren't your father. If Hayley and Kelly were going to be mad at you for what he had done, they would have started already."

"How do you know they haven't?" Sarah asked.

"They sit with you in class everyday. Kelly reminds you to eat when you get a little too caught up with your sketches and ideas and, despite becoming more aggressive with training, Hayley still takes care not to bop you in the head," Serena said with a bit of a chuckle. "Come on, I'm a former Ranger. You don't think I'm just at that school to help you with homework, do you?"

"I don't know," Sarah shrugged.

"I keep an eye out. I watch you kids and make sure everything's alright. I try not to step in too much, but at least I'm there if you need a little guidance."

"And I know," Gia stated, and Sarah turned to the yellow Ranger, "whenever it came to Emma and whatever crap she or her family pulled, I could always see the best in her because I knew who she really was. I mean, she blasted my heart pretty much right out of my chest and dramatically changed my life, and I never held that against her."

"Queen Emma," Serena said with a nostalgic smile. "She scared even the worst of monsters."

"Still does," Gia chuckled. "You know, from time to time, we still get mail from different galaxies containing peace offerings so Emma doesn't wipe them out."

"Seriously?"

"It's weird."

"Uh, guys," Sarah said, getting the focus back on her. "How does this help me?"

"Are you a good person?" Gia asked. Sarah nodded. "Are you kind? Caring? Would you ever do something to intentionally put your friends in harm's way?"

Sarah shook her head.

"If they needed you," Serena continued, "Would you be there for them in a heartbeat? Would you drop everything, without question, if they were in trouble?"

"Of course."

"Do they know that?" Gia asked. Sarah nodded again.

"I mean, I think so."

"Then they aren't pissed," Gia and Serena both stated with confidence.

"Trust me, if after all the shit we pulled, our teams can still love us," Serena said. "Your friends definitely do."

"What shit did you pull?" Sarah asked, but Gia shook her head and Serena lifted herself from the rock.

"We won't give you any ideas," the Silver Guardian said. "Now, shall we head back? Your girlfriend is waiting and your friends are worried."


	9. Sarah's Decision

The loudest sound in Ninja Ops was the regular beeping coming from Kelly's heart rate monitor. It was a noise that brought both comfort and pain to the Rangers in the sense that, as long as they could hear it, Kelly's heart was beating just fine and she was still alive, but at the same time, the fact that they needed to hear it to know she was alright meant things could be much better.

Other than the monitor, no one really wanted to make a sound. There wasn't much that they could, or wanted to say in the moment. They knew all they needed to know about what happened to Kelly and what her prognosis looked like, and they didn't need to talk about it.

All they did need to talk about was what to do next. Unfortunately, since it had to do with Sarah's father, no one wanted to have that discussion without her.

Brody, especially, didn't want to leave Sarah out of the loop. He recalled the day Aiden, the robot, showed up. He remembered how happy he had been when he thought he had finally found his brother, and how nothing and no one could convince him to give that up. Sarah had literally screamed at him not to trust Aiden, and had later been proven right, and Brody refused to believe her. Aiden was his brother, and despite all the bad things he had done while under Oedius' command, he believed in him.

Which was why he was willing to give Sarah's father the benefit of the doubt. When Aiden had shown his true colours – or rather, his wires, bolts and screws – Sarah, who had been right in not trusting him, and almost died for it, didn't play the _'I told you so'_ game. Instead, she offered Brody comfort and moved on. She didn't blame him because she, and all the other Rangers understood that Brody believed Aiden was family.

Now, the tables had turned. Bill had proven he was who he claimed to be, but he was also working for Madam Oedius. Brody could understand if, for that reason, Sarah wanted nothing to do with her father anymore and would be okay with turning her back on his pleas for help, or destroying him if the situation called for it.

At the same time, Brody could understand Sarah wanting to give him another chance, or sparing his life, if possible, because he was her father. While he knew it was a decision that would burden Sarah, he wanted her to know that he, and the whole team, had her back, just like they had his. They would do all they could to honour her wishes.

Calvin felt the same way. He wanted Bill's fate to be Sarah's call, but it was just a little more complicated for him than it was for Brody. Bill wasn't just Sarah's dad, to Calvin, but he was now the man who was responsible for the murder of his girlfriend's mother. Hayley had been trying to keep it together, especially in front of the other Rangers, but Calvin knew that every day since her mother had been gone, Hayley had been struggling. She didn't have that same light inside her that he used to see all the time. There were sparks of it, from time to time, and he knew one day it would come back, but she was changed forever.

Now, not only did Hayley still have to grieve over her mother, but her sister's life was on the line, once again, because of Bill. While Hayley and Kelly had gotten off to a rocky start, their relationship had completely changed once the Fosters took Kelly in. The two girls grew much closer and were now more like sisters than anything. If Calvin hadn't known any better, he would have sworn they knew each other their whole lives. Even Kody had bonded with Kelly in a way he only did with the Fosters.

So, handling Bill wasn't as simple to Calvin as doing whatever Sarah wanted. In a way, Calvin felt he needed to honour Hayley's wishes. So far, true to her nature, Hayley seemed to want to give Bill a second chance, as long as that was what Sarah wanted, but Calvin had a feeling that, really, Hayley never wanted to see the man again.

And how would he juggle that? If Sarah wanted to offer her father another chance, and if he took it, how would Calvin juggle including Mr. Thompson and completely rejecting him?

For now, at least, he didn't need to worry about that. For now, he had a girlfriend's whose only concern was her sister's wellbeing. Seeing Hayley sitting next to Kelly, gently holding her hand so Kelly would know she wasn't alone, Calvin gave a little smile. He approached her, slowly, and sat next to her.

"She's more of a cookie person," Calvin said, causing Hayley and Preston, who was also keeping close to Kelly, to look to him with some confusion. Calvin chuckled. "Normally, I'm the ice-cream man but Kelly's always been more of a cookie person. I think, once she wakes up, I'll be the cookie-man for a bit. Until she's feeling better, at least."

"She'll like that," Hayley whispered. Calvin put his hand on her back and rubbed small circles.

"She's a fighter," Calvin promised her. "I mean, though our Power Stars chose us for a reason, they still give us a huge advantage in battles. Advantages we don't have as just regular people. Kelly's the one jumping into fights with a man-made Ranger suit. Kind of scary, if you think about it, but goes to show how tough she is, right?"

"I heard dad talking to her once, after mom died," Hayley answered. "She wasn't coping well one night and felt bad about it because mom wasn't her real mom. Dad said it was okay. She's been through so much these past couple of years that it probably wore her down."

"But she's still a fighter," Calvin insisted, and Hayley nodded her head.

"That's what dad said. He said he understands if Kelly feels the most impacted by mom's death because it just gets piled onto everything else she's been through, and since he and mom saw her as family, it makes sense that it at least hurts her as much as it hurts us."

"Do you believe that?"

"I do," Hayley told him. "He told her, if she made it through everything else, and came out on the other side smiling, she'll find her way through this too."

"Exactly," Calvin said.

"But… now, she's got her past, mom's death and this," Hayley's gaze shifted away from Calvin to the bandages wrapped around Kelly's head. They were heavy on the back of her head, where she had been hit repeatedly and where most of the bleeding had come from. "What if, even if she wakes up, she's not the same. Sarah has seizures and if it hadn't been for Viera, she would still have the blackout rage and stuttering and… she was just so different then."

"It had just happened," Calvin reminded Hayley. "I mean, it wasn't like Viera showed up years later. We were all just getting used to Sarah's injuries. Something that drastic changes you, you know that."

"Cal…"

"You can't tell me you bounced back right after the abortion," Calvin said softly, knowing he was treading on dangerous waters now, but it needed to be said. Hayley needed it put in a way she would understand, and this was best coming from him. "It took a while for you to find your groove again. Hell, you're still not the same person you were before."

"I…"

"So, if Kelly does wake up and she's different, that will be for a while, but we'll figure it out," Calvin promised her. "Besides, I do remember some tricks from the violent Sarah, so that'll make that easier."

"Tricks?"

"Yeah, like don't leave anything sharp or pointy within reach, and when it looks like she might get mad, she's definitely going to get mad. She won't just take a deep breath and calm herself down. So… carry around a football helmet, or something."

Hayley chuckled. She and the Rangers had been fortunate enough not to witness too many of Sarah's tantrums. Jenny and Mick had taken care of those. However, they had seen enough, and had cleaned up enough of the mess that they had a good idea of what it entailed.

"The most important thing," Calvin continued, "Is that we don't give up on her. Once she wakes up she'll need us and we'll be there, figuring the rest of it out with her."

Hayley nodded her head and leaned into her boyfriend, grateful he had known what to say and that she had needed a bit of a talk. Shortly after, Sarah came back to Ninja Ops, with Serena and Gia right beside her. Hayley watched Sarah look to Kelly and saw the pink Ranger looking lost.

"I think you two have things to discuss," Calvin whispered to Hayley. "You don't have to agree on what to do with Bill, but you need to talk about it, right?"

"I guess we do," Hayley nodded. Calvin kissed the side of her head, then rose to his feet. He subtly hinted that everyone should leave by suggesting they see a bit more of the Academy grounds. Hayley stayed behind with Sarah, who took Preston's spot by Kelly so she could be next to her girlfriend.

There was silence for a few moments as the girls just sat with he green Ranger, neither knowing what to say. Eventually, they both tried to speak, blurting out the start of their thought at the same time.

"You go," Hayley insisted, and Sarah nodded.

"I'm sorry," she said. Hayley shook her head.

"You don't…"

"I know my dad might say it, and I get it if you don't want to believe him, but I want you to hear it honestly. I'm so sorry, Hayley, for everything he's done and everything he might do."

"It's not your fault," Hayley told her. "I know you're just as hurt by him as I am."

"I am," Sarah confirmed, "but… I've had a few talks now and… I want to… if he really is asking for help… I want to help him."

Hayley nodded her head. While she could understand why Sarah would want that, if she was honest, it wasn't what she wanted to hear. Hayley didn't want Bill in her life. Period.

"I get it."

"But if you don't…"

"I don't," Hayley said honestly. "I don't want to help him but… I guess if he's really asking for it, I can't say no."

"Hayley…"

"But if we do help him," Hayley said. "And if he is part of your life… I'll be happy for you, Sarah. If you can forgive him and move past thing, I really will be happy for you but… I can't." Hayley looked down at Kelly and squeezed her sister's hand tight. "I can't forgive him and once he's been helped, I don't ever want to see him again."

"Fair enough," Sarah nodded. "I'll keep him away from you. I'll keep things separate… if everything goes well."

"Thank you," Hayley said. "I don't mean to make you choose but…"

"I get it," Sarah insisted. "I really do. And honestly, it's not a choice. If it comes down to it, and it's my dad or you and Kelly, it's you."

"Sarah…"

"You won't make me choose," Sarah said. "And you haven't hurt the people I love. If anything, you've given her a home," Sarah said as she glanced down at Kelly. "I mean, you did hate her for a while. I remember that. And still, you gave her a home and a family and… dad screwed that up. He's my father but I'm not blind or an idiot."

"I hope you don't have to choose," Hayley told her. "I do hope this works out for you."

"Thanks," Sarah said, with a little smile. She was glad. Her uncle, and Gia and Serena had all been right about her friends. They weren't even considering blaming her for her father's actions. They knew her well enough to understand that while she did still love her father, and while she was open to the idea of giving him a second chance, she wasn't turning her back on them.

If anything, this strengthen Sarah's thought that she needed to continue putting her friends first. She would offer a hand to her father but if he rejected it, or if he abused it, she would take it back. And, if her friends needed her, she would choose them first.

Perhaps that was the best lesson her father had taught her. It had never been difficult for Sarah to accept Jenny as a part of her family, but Sarah had, at one point, struggled with the idea of allowing Jenny to be her mother. Her father had told her that while family was often created with a blood bond, that wasn't the most important thing.

Family, as he had once described it, was the people who loved you, cared for you, and supported you unconditionally. Family was the people who would comfort you, or kick your ass, depending on what the situation called for. Family was the people who came when you called. Since Jenny fit the bill, she was family.

And since Bill was no longer than person, Sarah couldn't offer him the same love and support as her friends. He had given that up. While he would always be her father, his days of being family, of being her number one, were over.

She hated to give that up, but it was for the best. She wanted to surround herself with people she knew she could depend on. People she knew would never hurt her.


	10. Out Of The Woods?

Pain radiated from her head, down her neck and back as Oedius smashed her into the wall. There was barely time to catch her breath, and Kelly heard a scream, before the pain was back. Something wet dribbled down her back. Based on the pain, Kelly could only imagine it was blood.

Oedius' laugh was haunting, and the green Ranger wanted to refuse letting that be the last sound she heard. Unfortunately, it wasn't up to her. As the pain became too much, the darkness took over.

From there, it was only flashes of her life that she could see and bits of sound, like pieces of a broken recording. She remembered being a child and hearing her parents speak poorly of a woman of colour, simply because of the colour of her skin. Kelly remembered feeling an ache in her bones as she was forced to agree with her parents.

She remembered her parents and their friends having dinner together, discussing one of her mother's coworkers, who had just gotten engaged to his fiancé. Both couples had been invited to the engagement party and neither were planning to attend. In fact, they were planning on freezing out the man who had once been their good friend, simply because he had fallen in love with another man, rather than a woman.

Kelly remembered discovering her own sexuality. She remembered needing desperately to talk to someone about it. However, her parents had already voiced their disdain for her "kind" around her, and she feared that if she brought it up to them, they would do like they had done to Eric and freeze her out.

She remembered being outed at school, and outing Sarah. She remembered the day her father had found out and kicked her out. She remembered meeting the Fosters and for once, feeling safe in her own skin. She remembered that feeling of falling more and more in love with Sarah and the feeling of having good, trustworthy friends. She remembered becoming the pink Ranger for a time, before settling in as green.

Oedius' laugh was back again. It started off as a booming noise, then slowly faded into the distance, replaced by the sound of something beeping. Was it her alarm? Was she late for school?

She woke with a start, gasping for breath and, thinking she was late, turned her head to her alarm clock. As she opened her eyes, she realized she wasn't at home, in her bed. Instead, she was somewhere strange. Fortunately, the face she woke up to wasn't strange at all. Kelly smiled as Sarah lifted her head from the side of the bed. Relief washed over her girlfriend's face.

"You're awake!" she called out and there were footsteps that seemed to come closer. Kelly smiled and nodded her head.

"I am."

"How do you spell your name?" Sarah asked and Kelly chuckled. She couldn't quite recall what had put her in this bed, or why she wasn't in her own bed, but the pounding headache and the slight panic from her girlfriend told her that something serious had happened.

"K-E-L-L-Y," she answered her, then chuckled when Sarah realized she had no idea if that was right or not. She strained herself to think, since Kelly's name wasn't that tough to spell, but the letters jumbled up inside her head. She couldn't even recall what a K would look like, never mind if it was the letter that went at the start of her name.

"Is that right?" she asked and looked around the room. Someone must have nodded, but Kelly didn't check. She didn't want to take her eyes off Sarah.

At least, not until a man leaned over her. She didn't recognize him, not even a little, but since Sarah seemed to trust him, Kelly didn't let herself worry about it. "How are you feeling?" he asked her.

"My head hurts a bit," Kelly said. "Otherwise… okay, I guess."

"Do you remember what happened?" Hayley asked. Kelly turned her head the other way and saw the rest of her friends standing there with Hayley.

"Vaguely… I think. Oedius did this, right?"

"You took a few pretty good hits to the head," the man leaning over her said. "The headache doesn't surprise me."

"Does anything else hurt?" Sarah asked. Kelly shook her head.

"Not really. But… uh… where am I?"

"Ninja Ops," Calvin answered, with a bit of excitement in his voice. "It's at the Wind Ninja Academy. You know, where Mr. Romero trained."

Shane cleared his throat and looked to Calvin, who nodded as he nervously scratched the back of his neck.

"Right, and where Shane is a Ninja Master."

"I could be a Ninja Master too," Dane defended. "I just… left to train my kids my own way."

"I train my kid my way," Tori responded with a bit of a cheeky smirk. "I'm still a Ninja Master."

"Yeah but… I didn't want the fear of a Ninja warrior coming from the sky and abducting us again."

"How did that work out," Shane chuckled and then gestured to Brody and Levi.

"I just felt like the better choice for my family was…"

"We're just teasing you," Shane said with a laugh. "But this is my turf. You know, since you walked away."

"Okay, I have some work to do," Cam stated and he moved away from Kelly for a moment and turned to the others in the room. "And I think we all know by now I work better when there's no one else around."

"What work?" Sarah asked as the others started to follow Cam's orders. They had all been around Ninja Ops long enough now that they knew Cam could get a little cranky while he worked, and it was best not to bother him. Sarah, though, didn't want to leave just yet.

"I just want to make sure there's no neurological impairments," Cam explained.

"Like epilepsy?"

"Sarah, I'll be fine," Kelly assured her girlfriend, squeezing her hand gently for comfort. "I feel fine."

"I did too," Sarah reminded her. "Until… you know, mom's rushing me to the doctor because I had a seizure."

"I know," Kelly said. "I remember."

"If there's something wrong, I'll find it," Cam promised Sarah, then Kelly. "Once we know what we're dealing with, we'll be better able to treat it. Hopefully, though, we're out of the woods."

"Come on, Sarah," Shane said as he gently held his niece and started to guide her to the stairs. "Let's let Cam work. The sooner her finishes, the sooner I can take you home."

"But…"

"Your mother's worried. How about we give her a call and let her know Kelly's awake?" Shane suggested. At least making the call would buy Cam a little time to do his work before the pink Ranger came back.

-Ninja-Steel-

In Summer Cove, Jenny breathed a huge sigh of relief as she hung up the phone. Sarah had called her with an update, and while she had pretended she wasn't still worried about Kelly's condition, her heart had been racing and she found herself needing to take a seat. Though she knew Kelly was now awake and seemed to be doing well, they weren't quite out of the woods yet. If Sarah had taught her anything, it was that head injuries could be unpredictable. Sarah's first seizure didn't occur until over a week after her last accident, and even with Viera's intervention, Sarah was still epileptic and still couldn't read or write because of her brain injuries.

"Everything okay?" Aaron asked as he came into the room. He had no idea about anything going on with the girls. When he had gotten home from work the night before, Jenny had told him that the girls were staying over at the Romero's with the other boys. It was the best cover she could think of because if Aaron did need to call to check in on the girls, and reached out to Brody and Levi's father, Dane would understand the situation and maintain the lie.

Jenny didn't like to call it a lie, but she couldn't deny that she was lying to Aaron. She felt badly for it. After all, he had just lost his wife, and didn't completely understand the circumstances around her death. Now, little did he know that his daughter's health was also on the line.

As much as she knew it wasn't right to lie, and that if he ever did find out the truth, he might get angry, Jenny did kind of wish she was in his place. She had a lot less questions for Sarah now that she knew she and her friends were the Power Rangers, but there was a lot more stress. She knew her daughter put her life on the line a few times a week to protect the city. It was a heavy burden to bare and though Jenny was grateful that she had the opportunity to help and to make life a little easier for the teenagers keeping the planet safe, it was a lot easier to worry about her daughter coming in after curfew than to know it was her running towards the monster, instead of away.

"Yeah, everything's fine," Jenny told him. "That was just Sarah calling to tell me they're going to stay with Brody and Levi for another night."

"Again?"

"It's a close-knit group," Jenny said, though she couldn't help but understand Aaron's frustrations. This would be the second night in a row he didn't see his daughters at all. "I guess they're just having fun."

"I don't remember hanging out with my friends this much, though," Aaron said skeptically. Jenny shrugged her shoulders.

"The Romero's do live out in the country," she remarked. "And I know Dane likes to keep to himself, mostly. The kids are probably enjoying a little freedom. It's probably good for Hayley and Kelly, too. No one's got parents to worry about right now, so it might feel a little normal, right now."

"You think?"

"Sarah spent a lot of time with the group after her father passed," Jenny said, intentionally omitting that the reason was because they were the Power Rangers, and they needed to train and bond in order to do their jobs properly. "She adjusted pretty well to life without him, so I guess it helped."

"Well, Hayley hasn't called me to say anything."

"Sarah called me," Jenny said. "She probably assumed I'd tell you."

"Right," Aaron nodded his head. "But if the girls try to stay another night, can you ask them to come home. As therapeutic as it might be for them to stay away from me, I think it would help us adjust to have some family time."

Jenny couldn't help but agree. Her time with Sarah after Bill's death had been a huge help for both. They had been able to talk about what they would want and need from each other moving forward and had been able to set the tone for how their new, smaller family would move on comfortably. Unfortunately, with a head injury, it was guaranteed that Kelly could come home and act like nothing had happened.

"I'll do what I can. Teenage girls are pretty notorious for not listening to their parents, though," she added, just in case the girls couldn't come home. Aaron nodded.

"They are, but our girls are good.


	11. On The Bright Side

Everything had seemed good for Kelly during Cam's neurological test. She had passed the exam as far as brain injuries went with flying colours. She had been able to move her head, follow his pen, her pupils responded normally to light and as Cam performed nearly every exam in the book, Kelly seemed to do well.

It wasn't until he asked her to get out of bed that they noticed a problem. Kelly couldn't move the lower half of her body, and it wasn't until she tried that she realized she couldn't even feel her legs.

So, Cam performed another scan. This one revealed trauma to her spine. It wasn't obvious who was most upset: Kelly, due to the results and the impact it would have on her life, or Cam for missing something so obvious when he had tried to be more careful.

"It must have happened in the rush to bring her here," Cam explained to the others. He had already talked Kelly through what he had learned. Now that she was processing it, he had to tell her friends. "As careful as we all were to keep her spine straight, we were still rushing. We likely aggravated an injury caused by Oedius when she slammed Kelly into the wall and caused the paralysis."

"Wind Ninja Academy," Serena mumbled softly. "You walk in, but you don't walk out."

Cam, Shane and Tori looked to the white Ranger regretfully. Serena glared at them, then let out a deep breath to calm herself before she asked her question.

"I learned to walk again," she said and the Ninja Steel Rangers all turned to look at her in shock. "Is it at all possible Kelly might too?"

All eyes turned back to Cam, who didn't really have an answer. Though he was sure he could earn a medical degree from almost any school in the country, the fact was that he wasn't a doctor. He knew enough to treat the students in his school and Rangers who came needing help, but he couldn't replace what a real doctor could offer. Even with his students, he always told them to follow up with a doctor after they saw him, just to be sure there wasn't anything he missed.

He looked to Kelly regretfully. While it seemed like there was nothing that could have been done if he had caught the injury any earlier, the fact that she and her friends had spent even a few moments thinking everything might be alright had caused this reveal to feel so much worse.

"I mean, I can't say for sure," Cam said. "The trauma has caused some swelling, which, like your injury, could be the cause for the paralysis, but the odds of her walking again are probably low. If I were a betting man, I wouldn't put any money on a full recovery."

Though Kelly had heard that once before already, those words hit her like a ton of bricks. If she could, she would have gotten up and rushed out of Ninja Ops. Unfortunately, she couldn't. It took everything she had to keep herself from breaking down in front of everyone.

Sarah, who had been holding her close, gave her a gentle squeeze. She could feel her girlfriend trembling, but she didn't know what she could say or do to make it better.

"Well, I've been through this shit before," Serena said and this time focused her attention on Kelly. "I can definitely help you through it."

"I can arrange a meeting with my partner, Rebecca," Gia offered. "She's not paralyzed, but she is blind, and while it's not the same, she learned to live with an impairment, and she's doing really well with it. She might have tips or suggestions on things you can do to make life a little… easier, I guess."

"We'll figure it out," Brody said, then turned to Cam. While no one was happy with him right now, Brody realized it wasn't Cam's fault. He was the messenger for bad news, which meant everyone was likely to take their anger out on him. Had it not been for Cam, Kelly could have suffered injuries far worse than paralysis. It would take some time for everyone, including himself, to see it, but Cam was the hero. Still, despite the anger he felt, he wanted Cam to know his work was appreciated. "We know you did everything you could…"

"If there's anything else…"

"You've done enough," Serena snapped. Gia grabbed her arm and pulled her back rather aggressively.

"Serena, it's not his fault," she told the white Samurai. Serena let out a deep breath, then shook her head.

"No, I know."

"Besides," Gia whispered. "You don't want to do this in front of them. They need hope right now. Not flashbacks from you."

"I know," Serena reiterated. She looked to Cam. "Sorry."

"I get it," he said. "I really did try everything I could…"

"I know," Serena said and she wanted to end it there, but Gia nudged her. "And I know it would be far worse without you."

"If there's anything else you need," Cam started to offer, and Kelly spoke up.

"I want to go home," she said. Hayley took her hand gently.

"Dad's home. I think maybe it's better to wait until we have some way to explain this before we…"

"I don't care about Aaron, I just want to go home," Kelly said. "If I'm going to be stuck in a bed all day, for the rest of my life, I'd rather it be my own bed."

"Then we'll go home," Sarah said. Hayley didn't appear to agree.

"Dad's going to ask questions…"

"So we tell him the truth."

"I don't want him getting involved in this," Hayley frowned. "We keep him out of it, and Kelly stays here until we have a good cover story."

"She wants to go home," Sarah growled. Gia, sensing things were getting heated, stepped in between the two girls.

"You need to figure this out outside," she told them, and when the girls started to protest, likely to tell Gia they didn't want to leave Kelly's side, the Silver Guardian grabbed them both by the arm and pulled them out of Ninja Ops. The rest of the Ninja Steel Rangers and Dane followed. While it wasn't up to them what happened with Kelly and whether now was the time for Aaron to know the truth or not, they did all think maybe they could offer some sort of opinion to help in the decision.

Serena hung back with the three older Rangers and Kelly. As much as this moment was bring back memories of the last time she had been to the Academy, and left paralyzed just like Kelly, she knew it wasn't the Ninjas fault. She knew they had done what they could to help her, and it was just bad luck that this had to happen twice.

"I have a wheelchair still lying around somewhere at the Shiba House," Serena said. "It's a bit used, but still in pretty good condition."

"Fine."

"I'll give Lauren and Ally a call and pick it up," Serena told her. "I know it probably doesn't sound like much, but it'll feel better to roll out of here on your own than be carried out by your friends. And I'll stick around long enough to help you get used to moving around. It's a bit tricky to start, but you do pick up on it. Eventually, it feels as fluid as walking."

"Doubtful," Kelly muttered. Serena knew she was just angry with the situation. She was taking her anger out on whoever was brave enough to speak directly to her.

"I'll be back in a heartbeat," Serena promised her. She gave the green Ranger's hand a squeeze, then rushed out of Ninja Ops. By the time she reached the stairs, she was already on the phone with her red Ranger. Once she was gone, Kelly was left with just the Ninjas.

"I'm really sorry," Cam reiterated to her. "If there's anything I can do…"

"You've done enough," Kelly snapped. Shane crossed his arms.

"Kelly…"

"I'm paralyzed!"

"It could have been much worse," he told her sternly. "In fact, we ran the risk of losing you all together."

"Don't yell at me."

"You're being a brat," Shane said. "I get this sucks and you're allowed to be upset and hurt by it. I've never been paralyzed or even run the risk of having impairment, but I know I would much rather that than die."

"I…"

"Cam did everything he could to keep you alive," Shane told her. "If you're going to sulk because the results aren't perfect, that just makes you ungrateful…"

"Shane," Tori called, trying to get him to back off. She felt he was being a bit harsh. As he had stated, Kelly could be hurt and upset by her diagnosis. To scold her about it now seemed insensitive. But Shane shook his head.

"No," Shane argued, dismissing the blue Ranger. "I feel badly for her. I know she's got a tough road ahead of her but paralysis isn't the worse thing that can happen to a person. She's still alive. She's got a family and friends and a girlfriend who are upstairs fighting over how they're going to help her. She's got someone rushing out to get her a wheelchair and offering to teach her how to use it and she is going to learn how to live her life again. Sure, it'll be different, but she's alive and she's otherwise healthy and I'm not going to let her think that she can be a brat just because she can't use her legs."

"Back off, Shane," Tori growled, but Kelly shook her head.

"No… he's right," she said. Cam and Tori turned to her with nothing but shock plastered all over their faces. "He's right," she repeated. "I… I'm pretty lucky."

Shane tried not to let it show, but he did let out a huge sigh. While he would stand by his decision to be firm with Kelly, he knew it had been a huge risk. She was vulnerable. He could have worsened it.

"You are?" Cam asked.

"I did have nothing, once," Kelly said. "And… I mean, it wasn't for long but… after my dad kicked me out and before Hayley offered to let me stay with her family… I had nothing. No home, no family… I wasn't even sure what my friends would think of me. My parents couldn't love me over something as stupid as who I liked, and now I have strangers who'll do everything they can to save me and friends and family who aren't upstairs deciding on whether they'll stick it out or not. They're trying to help me. And paralysis is… it's a much bigger deal than my sexuality. I'll need to learn to use a wheelchair and how to get around in it and… so much is going to be different and… they'll stick by me."

Kelly looked to Cam regretfully, "I'm sorry I snapped. You did everything you could and… all things considered, I'm so lucky just to be alive right now."

"I really did try," Cam promised her and Kelly nodded her head.

"I know. And I can't promise I'm not upset and not mad about it but… Shane's right. This isn't the worse thing that can happen. And if I can survive being rejected by my parents and kicked out of the only home I've ever known… I can figure this out, right?"

"I… I guess," Tori nodded uncertainly. Kelly smiled.

"I will figure this out," she said, just as Sarah came back to Ninja Ops. The pink Ranger seemed upset as she made her way down the stairs, but that look on her face turned to confusion when she saw her girlfriend with a real, happy smile on her face. She stopped instantly, looked around the room, then frowned curiously.

"What's going on?"

"I'm alive," Kelly smiled. "I'm alive and I know whether this is permanent or not, you're sticking by me, right?"

"Of course," Sarah nodded her head. "I've already got wheelchair upgrade ideas floating around in my head to help make life a little easier for you."

"My girlfriend's amazing," Kelly smiled. Tori leaned into Cam.

"This isn't just painkillers, right?" she asked. "They won't ware off and she'll go back to upset and scared, will they?"

"She said she wasn't in too much pain, so I didn't give her painkillers," Cam said. "Besides, I don't have anything that would numb the pain this much. She'll need a real doctor for those."

"So," Sarah said to her girlfriend, still a little skeptical that in a few minutes, Kelly could completely change her mind about her paralysis. "You're actually… fine with this?"

"Well… I mean, it still sucks that I might never walk again," Kelly admitted. "I'm a bit angry about that but Shane was right," she said and smiled at the red Ranger. "It could have been worse. I could have died or not had you guys to help me. And… and I know we'll have to figure out how to tell Aaron about this, or even what to tell him, but… I know he's going to want to help. I don't doubt that. How lucky am I?"

"For Aaron?"

"He's like a real dad," Kelly smiled. "My dad… he couldn't love me when I was just a lesbian. Could you imagine how much he'd freak out if I was a paralyzed lesbian? He'd probably kick me out of my wheelchair and tell me to walk down the aisle to marry a man I could never love!"

"I… I guess," Sarah said.

"I want to go home," Kelly told her girlfriend, "But not until we know what we're going to tell Aaron. I don't care if it's the truth or a cover up."

"And… you're sure about this… bright-side thing?" Sarah asked. "Because I was coming down here to give you a speech about how we were going to get through this together and that no matter what, we would figure this out and I would always love you and… you know, sappy girlfriend stuff."

"I'm positive," Kelly nodded.

"Well… I'm still skeptical but if we're choosing to be optimistic, I can deal with that," Sarah said with a smile. "But you know it's okay to be angry or… not Miss Bright-side about this… right?"

"I know," Kelly nodded.

"We'll let you two say the sappy girlfriend stuff," Tori said to the girls as she gestured to Shane and Cam that it was time to step out. While it seemed Kelly had honestly chosen to be optimistic about her results, it could only help to know that she did have her girlfriend's support if and when she needed it.

As the older Ninjas were leaving, and once they were out of earshot of the two girls, Tori turned to Shane and punched him as hard as she could in the arm. Shane let out a wail he was sure everyone at the Academy heard as he turned to his friend.

"OW!" he stated painfully, and matter-of-factly. "What the hell."

"You are so lucky that worked out for you, Clarke," Tori frowned, then hit him again. "Don't you ever try a stunt like that again with someone that vulnerable."

"I thought treating her like a normal person might help," Shane said. "Since, you know, she's still a normal person… just… she uses a wheelchair now."

"You're lucky," Tori reminded him. "But try that shit again and I'll be sure the next person to walk out of here in a wheelchair is you."

"Technically, I wouldn't be walking out in a wheelchair," Shane pointed out to her, but Tori punched him again. "OW! Okay, okay. I got lucky. I won't do it again."


	12. Braver Than Brave

Shane's speech to Kelly had been a risky one. At a time where she was most vulnerable, he had scolded her for taking out her fears for her future on Cam. He told her, point blank, that instead of feeling sad and anger, she should be grateful. Cam had saved her life, and without his intervention, she could have lost a lot more than just the use of her legs.

It had been a huge risk. A risk he really shouldn't have taken. Still, it was exactly what Kelly needed to hear.

She didn't have a good childhood. While she liked to think she did, the truth was that she had discovered her sexuality shortly after hitting puberty. By then, her parents had drilled it into her that any love that wasn't heterosexual love was bad. For years she felt like there was something wrong with her simply because she loved women. She had to listen to her parents berate, harass and deny human beings their rights, simply because they didn't like who they chose to fall in love with.

It had affected her self-confidence deeply. For a few years, she had resigned herself to never being happy. She knew she would always have to choose between real love and keeping a close bond with her parents. While they had caused her a lot of pain over the years, they were still her parents – still the people who raised her.

When she admitted her feelings to a girl in her old school, she was outed to everyone there. Since her school and her old town were both rather small minded, she was harassed and bullied by all her classmates. Boys would flirt with her to see if they could convert her, or tell her that being a lesbian was a huge turn on to them – as if her sexuality was just another obstacle to overcome. She had boys saying that she just had to sleep with them and get the full experience to realize that she wasn't a lesbian.

And if that wasn't bad enough, the girls were worse. Kelly was always shamed in the changerooms in gym class, and there were always notes left on or in her locker with threats. Old friends were now tormentors as they feared Kelly had become some kind of predator when the truth was, they did more to make her feel uncomfortable, and even endangered, than she ever made them feel.

And she couldn't tell her teachers. Even if they didn't assume all this was going on, if they knew for sure what was happening and wanted to help, they would only get her parents involved. She would be outed to the only people she had who put a roof over her head, clothed her, gave her food and would help pay for college down the road. Her entire life was one the line because of one little secret.

Fortunately, her parents had moved to Summer Cove. They had no idea the city was much more inclusive. Kelly, unsure of this herself at first, outed Sarah when the pink Ranger had asked her out. That simple act had almost cost her the only friends she ever had who seemed to truly like her. Fortunately, Sarah was more of the forgiving type, and when she saw the school had shunned Kelly because of her mistake, she offered a helping hand. She stood up to a jock when he was being overly-aggressive and offered to return to being Kelly's friend.

From there, the relationship evolved. Kelly still felt a lot of guilt over what she had done to Sarah, but the pink Ranger, now her girlfriend, assured her that there was no harm done. The school had supported her, and it wasn't like the people Sarah cared for most didn't already know. They had moved past the incident and into what was, without a doubt, the best and healthiest relationship Kelly had ever had with anyone!

Unfortunately, she was still living with her parents at the time and so had to keep the relationship secret. As far as her parents knew, Sarah was just a friend – at least, until her father read her text messages and found out the truth. He couldn't kick her out of the house fast enough and didn't care what that meant for his daughter. She was without a home, without a family, and without a future, and while it was only a short while, it was still one of the most terrifying moments of Kelly's life.

But she had not only survived being kicked out of her home, she had thrived. She learned she could depend on her friends and in the process, gained a family who loved her with their whole hearts. While the Fosters weren't her birth parents, they were a better family than the people who raised her. They knew she was a lesbian but saw her as a person – a teenager. They embraced her. She wasn't just the girl they picked up off the street, she was the final piece to their family puzzle.

And her friends did everything they could to help get her back on her feet. If she could thrive, after all of that, and knowing that she had people in her life who would move mountains for her, if she needed it, she knew paralysis wouldn't be an impossible challenge. She would find a way to overcome it. No matter how hard it got, she now had friends and family she could lean on.

And that was certainly better than dying. She got another chance to live, and even if she had to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life, it was still better than leaving everyone she loved behind.

"So, you're really okay with this?" Sarah asked as she made up the sofa-bed in the living room of the Romero home. Kelly had been cleared to leave Ninja Ops, but she wasn't ready to head home yet. She didn't have a cover for how she had become paralyzed and without a solid story, Aaron would surely become suspicious.

Instead, she told him that the school had planned a camping trip and she and Hayley had both forgotten to show him the permission slips. Given they were all still reeling from Anne's death, Aaron bought it, especially when Jenny confirmed the story, saying that Sarah had her sign one a week before. With Mick's help, the Rangers forged a permission form, and Hayley quickly stopped by at home to have her father sign it.

Now they had at least a week to figure out their story.

"I guess okay isn't the right word," Kelly answered her girlfriend as she watched Sarah fight with the fitted sheet. She wanted to help, but life in a wheelchair was still new to her so she didn't know how just yet. Sarah didn't seem to mind, though. Really, it wasn't like Kelly could be of much more help with a sheet that didn't seem to fit properly, no matter which way it was turned. "I mean, if I had my way, I could still walk and stuff but… hey, if you can get used to not being able to read or write, surely I can get used to a wheelchair. I mean, at least there are support groups for my condition."

"I could join a support group for people with dyslexia," Sarah offered. "And, I mean, it's hard but… with Serena, I can still do everything I used to be able to do."

"With this wheelchair, I can still do everything I used to be able to do too," Kelly smiled. "I mean, I wasn't especially athletic before, so it's not like I'm going to miss playing sports, though that is still an option down the road. More and more places are accessible, so we can still go on dates. This chair means we can walk around, we can still do homework together and, best of all, I'm not dead."

"I know," Sarah said, then shrugged. "I guess I wasn't really talking about the day to day stuff."

"What do you mean?"

Sarah finally got the fitted sheet on the bed and sat down. She looked to her girlfriend.

"Oedius didn't kill you, which I'm sure is what she wanted, but she still did… well, win."

"She won?"

"I just… I don't see how you can be a Ranger," Sarah said. "And believe me, I'm working on a wheelchair that's going to blow your mind with all the stuff it'll help you do. And I know if you set your heart to something, you'll find a way to do it… but it's… Cam barely gave you the all clear to play sports. I doubt you'll be running, or rolling, into battle with us anytime soon."

Kelly looked down at her chair, "I hadn't thought about that."

"There's plenty of things you can do to help from here, though," Sarah assured her. "Mick and RedBot could always use a little extra help, and Serena did say she was paralyzed when she was a Ranger, so maybe she has some tips there but…"

"I want to still be a Ranger," Kelly said. "Whatever we have to do to make it work, I want to do it."

"Kelly…"

"You created a hoverboard, Sarah," Kelly said. "You're working on a wheelchair that I'm pretty sure will be some thirtieth century kind of technology."

"I wouldn't go that far."

"Maybe… maybe you can design a chair for me that… can help in a battle. I can still throw a punch. Or roll over toes."

"You really want this?" Sarah asked. "Get back in the fight? Knowing it could make your condition worse? If a monster knocks you out of your chair, it doesn't matter whether it's just a chair on wheels or some thirtieth century tech, you'll be helpless."

"I can practice quick recoveries," Kelly said. "I know I won't be back in the suit right away but… you said Oedius still won and… I don't want to let her win."

"We won't. Not in the long fight."

"I don't want her to win any fights," Kelly insisted. She reached out and took her girlfriend's hand. "I don't want her to believe we crumble that easily. If she's going to knock us out of the fight, I want her to have to really work for it. I want to make this so difficult for her that she starts to wonder if taking over the planet is really worth it."

Sarah looked to her girlfriend with a smile, then started to laugh. Kelly frowned.

"Sarah, I mean it! I want to show her it's going to take more than a few blows in the head to…"

"It's not that," Sarah said and squeezed Kelly's hand as she tried to compose herself. "I swear, it's really not that."

"So then why are you laughing? I'm being totally serious…"

"I know," Sarah said. "And that's… that's what I love about you."

"That I'm serious?"

"You call me superwoman, right?" Sarah asked. "Because you think I'm fearless and strong and just…"

"Super," Kelly smiled, and Sarah nodded her head.

"You always used to say you admired that about me. How brave I was or how I saw challenges as opportunities to grow. Nothing really freaked me out."

"Yeah."

"Well, losing the ability to read and write is pretty scary but… I didn't ever really depend on it. I mean, reading journals and stuff from the world's greatest engineers was awesome but… it's not like I needed that for my everyday life. Mostly everything now has symbols and stuff because we're too busy to read or we want something more efficient. You… You're paralyzed. You can't walk, and whether that's temporary or not, that's literally a crippling condition."

"Yeah."

"Most people struggle with that diagnosis their whole lives but… in just a few days you're already… you're kind of past it. You're not letting it stop you and even though it's going to be a lot of work and it's going to change almost every aspect of your life, you're still planning to look Oedius in the eye and kind of… na-na, na-na, boo her."

"I'm going to what?"

You're going to kick ass," Sarah said with a bright smile. "And if I'm brave then… I don't even know how to describe you. Which, I guess that makes sense. You're the writer here. What's braver than brave?"

"I don't know," Kelly shrugged. "But I'm not Sarah-level brave. It's just that… it could be worse, just like your uncle said and…"

"It's beyond Sarah-level brave," Sarah assured her. "And regardless of how this all works out, whether we can get you back on the battlefield or we find ways for you to help from the base, you can always count on me admiring this courage. Nothing stops you, Kel. I love that."

Kelly beamed, pulled her girlfriend on her lap and leaned in for a passionate kiss. It was short-lived, though as Serena and Gia walked in. Gia cleared her throat, signalling their arrival while Serena smirked teasingly.

"They make a cute couple, don't you think?" she asked as she gently budged Gia. The yellow Ranger rolled her eyes.

"Glad to see you two are having a moment but… training's about to start with the others," Gia said to Sarah.

"And while they do that, I'm going to show you a few more tricks for that chair," Serena told Kelly. "Now, wheelies are fun if you just want to freak out your friends. Emily used to have heart attacks when she thought I was falling backwards. But, they're also helpful for little bumps or curbs when the road isn't smooth."

"Looking forward to it," Kelly smiled, and kissed Sarah once more before letting her go.

"You'll be back to training with us in no time," she promised her girlfriend. "Who knows, maybe you'll be able to kick Preston's ass again."

"I could barely do that when I had use of my legs," Kelly frowned.

"Yeah, but you weren't this brave tiger," Sarah said with a charming smirk, and a wink.

"Okay!" Gia said and pulled the pink Ranger out of the room. "No using tigers in anything… lovey-dovey. As much as I support this, I don't need to see it. Now let's go, everyone else is waiting."

Serena chuckled as she watched Gia drag Sarah out, then turned to Kelly, "You're handling this well."

"Yeah, well, I can either be sad and mopey about it, or I can count my blessings and adapt, right?"

"Emily isn't as positive as you," Serena said with a laugh. "Hell, Scruffy was never as positive as you."

"Scruffy?"

"World's happiest dog, I swear," Serena told her. "Just… don't mention him in front of my sister unless you actually want to see someone depressed about something they can't change."

"Noted. So, wheelies?"

"We'll start outsides. There's a few other tricks I'm hoping to tackle before we get there."

"Is it more complicated than left, and right?"

"When you drop your son's blanket on the floor and there's no one around to pick it up, it is," Serena nodded. "Besides, the sooner you're independent, the sooner we can get you back on the battlefield."

"So it is possible?"

"In a way," Serena smiled.


	13. A Broken Family

Bill hadn't heard from his family in almost a week now. It made sense. Madam Oedius had known he was going to Sarah and Jenny to ask for their help. She knew he wanted out of his deal with her and the only people who could protect him were the Rangers. Unfortunately, as he was trying to make peace, Oedius attacked and caused some serious harm to Kelly. Bill still had no updates on her condition, but last he had seen, she was in a bad way.

Oedius, knowing he was no longer loyal, had cut all ties with him. She didn't trust him and her deal with him was broken. He couldn't go back to her, and every time he reached out to his family, they shut him out. He had Sarah's voicemail message memorized and Jenny would simply answer then hang up, before he could get a word in.

Life was lonely. Bill had done everything he could in his situation but unfortunately there had been no right answer. Whatever he had chosen to do would result in someone getting hurt.

It was the middle of the day on a Saturday. Bill was in Summer Cove, walking the streets and trying to figure out what he could do with his life. He was a dead man walking and so couldn't exactly apply for a job. Without a job, he was left without money, food or a roof over his head. He hated this way of life but he knew he deserved it. After everything he had been through, reasonably, he couldn't ask for anything from his family or the Rangers. He was going to have to start over from scratch and find someone who would be willing to hire him without any papers or ID.

As he was gazing at fruit at the farmer's market, contemplating if the vendor would be kind enough to offer him a sample (or two), someone approached him from behind.

"Bill Thompson?" they asked and fearing he had been recognized, he shook his head and tried to take off. The person followed him.

"You have the wrong person," he said and wished he had come up with his new name already. "I'm not who you're looing for."

The person grabbed him. Bill wished he had started running. They grabbed him and spun him around. Bill noticed the uniform first – a Silver Guardian. The woman looked at him face, then turned him around again and locked cuffs around his wrists.

"What am I being arrested for?" he asked. The Guardian leaned in over his shoulder.

"We both know I can't say it out loud," she told him and guided him over to her truck. There, she put him in the backseat. Bill didn't want to protest too much, because he didn't want to cause a scene. Some of his former co-workers like to come to the farmer's markets with their families and if he was recognized, after over a year of being assumed dead, there would be too many questions. It was bad enough, already, that the Silver Guardians knew who he was and what he had done.

As the Guardian got into the driver's seat, she glanced into the rear-view mirror. Bill looked to her, pleadingly.

"Why am I being arrested?" he asked again.

"You're not under arrest," the Guardian told him. "Though, you should be. I could charge you as accessory to murder and attempted murder."

"I…"

"I'm taking you to see your daughter, and trust me, she feels a lot better knowing you're in handcuffs."

"You know my daughter?" Bill asked. There wasn't much said after that. The Guardian drove him out of town, into the countryside. Bill hadn't had the chance to explore this part of Summer Cove yet, though he did remember Sarah mentioning that her friends Brody and Levi lived out in the country. In fact, Levi was a country singer. Was it possible he was meeting with the Rangers?

They pulled into a long driveway and at the end of it were two structures. One was very clearly a house while the other appeared to be a workshop or barn of some sort. The Guardian stopped the car and stepped out. Then she helped Bill from his seat and walked him over to the workshop.

As they entered the workshop, Bill saw Sarah at a table, doing what he knew she loved most. She was working on some blueprints, though he couldn't see what she was designing, it appeared she was working on something she was passionate about. Whenever she had a project that she really loved, the rest of the world seemed to tune itself out. She didn't hear him or the Guardian as they came in, and it barely registered the first couple of times her name was called. The Guardian had to shout before catching Sarah's attention.

"That was fast," she said. Gia frowned and checked her watch.

"I've been gone for three hours!"

"You… have?" Sarah said and instinctually when to check the clock before remembering it was digital and she couldn't read it. She sighed. "Well, I've been busy."

"I see. Want me to stay?"

"No," Sarah shook her head. "Can you go check on Kelly?"

Gia nodded and smiled to Sarah as she stepped out. Bill looked to his daughter with relief.

"She's alive?"

"Barely," Sarah said and seemed to want to ignore him. It made no sense to Bill. If she had hired a Silver Guardian to find him and bring him to her, she must have wanted to talk.

"Sarah, I didn't mean for any of this to happen," Bill told her. "Eu estava realmente pedindo sua ajuda."

"But you knew about what would happen to Anne?" Sarah asked. Bill nodded his head.

"I did. I choose her, out of everyone else, to be killed."

"Why?" Sarah asked him. Bill shrugged his shoulders.

"I… Madam Oedius wanted it to hurt. Anne was Hayley and Kelly's mom, and you and Calvin are both close to the girls so that was…"

"Me?" Sarah asked with a frown. "I was close to Kelly. You… you knew it would hurt me?"

"Yes, but…"

"This whole time, you've been saying how you never wanted to hurt me," Sarah told him and it was as if someone had turned on a facet. Tears started to pour down her face. Bill wanted to rush over and take her in his arms. He never wanted to see her hurt, never mind be the cause of her pain. However, the cuffs stopped him. His arms were pulled behind his back. Sarah glared at him, "Você mentiu."

"Não!" he shook his head. "Sarah, I meant that…"

"You said Oedius wanted the death to hurt. Losing any parent would have hurt us all, but you picked the one that would hurt me the most?"

"No, Sarah…"

"Hayley's my best friend!" Sarah shouted. "Kelly's my girlfriend. Every time they mourn their mother, I feel like I'm standing there, like an idiot, knowing that it was my dad who called the shot. My dad is the reason their mom is dead."

"Sarah…"

"You're selfish!" Sarah yelled.

"It was lose-lose."

"You made that choice knowing I would get hurt…"

"Madam Oedius…"

"She threatened me long before you showed up," Sarah growled at him. She wiped away some of her tears, but they continued to flood down her face. "I was in danger long before she…"

"You don't know what she's like," Bill said. "All that time she kept me prisoner..."

"She changed you," Sarah nodded. "She turned you from my dad into someone I don't recognize anymore. And I hate it."

"I do too," Bill admitted. "I'm a monster. I know what I've become. But I want to change that."

"How?" Sarah asked. "Hayley never wants to see you again. She couldn't care less what happens to you. The only reason she's allowing you to come this close to her is because you're my father."

"I'm so sorry…"

"Kelly doesn't trust you either. She doesn't think she can. I could live with Hayley never wanting anything to do with you but… my girlfriend?"

"Sarah…"

"You almost got her killed."

"I didn't know Oedius was going to show up," Bill promised her, but it didn't seem Sarah wanted to listen. He couldn't blame her. The more he thought about his actions, and the more Sarah confronted him with them, the worse he felt about everything. His wife and his daughter had been right from the start. He had chosen Oedius over them. He had betrayed them.

"My girlfriend never wants to see you again," Sarah told her father. "And… and while I was open to… helping you or… something… the fact that she can't even hear me talk about you without almost crying… that breaks me too."

"Sarah…"

"So I'm choosing her," Sarah said. She reached behind the work table where a bag had been packed. Bill initially thought it was Sarah's tools, but she tossed it to his feet. "She's never tried to kill you."

"Sarah…"

"In that bag is your new ID, social security number, and everything you need to land an job with a living wage," Sarah told him. "You're going to leave this town and never come back."

It was Bill's turn to start crying. He knew long ago that he had lost his daughter but now it was real. Now, she was kicking him out for good.

"Sarah, please…"

"My girlfriend's in a wheelchair because of you! My best friend's mother is dead! I'm not even sending you to prison, dad! All you're getting is a new life. That's the most generous thing I can offer."

"I know what Oedius is planning," Bill pleaded with his daughter. "I can tell you everything…"

"On your way out," Sarah told him as she walked closer to him. She asked him to turn around and unlocked his cuffs. Then she stepped back quickly, denying him the chance to hug her. She pointed to his bag. Bill sighed as he reached down to pick it up.

"Tell your mother…"

"Tell me yourself," Jenny said as she stepped inside the workshop. Bill was genuinely surprised to see her here. He assumed with Sarah kicking him out, and talking to him in private, that she would keep him away from his wife. He looked to Sarah gratefully, but she shook her head.

"This is for her," Sarah said. "What you wanted never crossed my mind."

"Fair enough," Bill nodded. He turned to his wife with a smile, but Jenny didn't reciprocate. She looked to the bag she had packed for him, then back at him.

"I'm only here to tell you I'll take care of Sarah," Jenny promised. Bill nodded.

"Thank you."

"As far as you're concerned, there's no sympathy," Jenny told him. "There's no love lost. I'm moving on with my life, whatever that means."

"I understand."

"And she's my daughter," Jenny insisted. She took Sarah in her arms and hugged her tight. "You're nothing but a stranger to us now."

"I guess I'll just go," Bill nodded. It was clear there was nothing left for him here. He had done far too much damage to his family to consider any kind of repair. They had learned to live without him, he would have to make his peace with that somehow.

"Oedius' plan?" Sarah asked as he made his way to the door. He nodded his head.

"Right. Her plan…"

"Why don't I tell you myself?" Madam Oedius said, announcing her arrival as she stepped out of the shadows of the workshop with a smirk.


	14. Explosive Goodbyes

While Sarah spoke with her father in the workshop, the Rangers were across the field training. Since they had come back from the Wind Ninja Academy – Dane's former home and school – they were motivated to learn a little more about the Ninja style. Dane had been more than happy to share what he knew. While he had already incorporated some of what he had learned into past lessons, this one was a full Wind Ninja Training.

Gia joined Serena and Kelly on the side. The green Ranger was motivated to get back in the spandex, but since it had been just under a week since she had been confined to a wheelchair, there was still a lot more she needed to do to be strong enough to fight monsters. She had to recover from her injuries first and be able to move fluently in her day to day life. It would make training a little easier and would reassure the Rangers that she wouldn't hurt herself further.

Serena, having needed a wheelchair before, was more than happy to teach a few tricks to help Kelly in her transition. While they liked to call it training, it really didn't take as long as the Rangers'. Often, they watched most of the lessons from the sideline, but Kelly took advantage of that. She made sure to listen, so she wouldn't fall too far behind.

While Kelly was focused on her teammates, Gia said next to Serena. The white Ranger turned to yellow.

"How did it go?"

"He didn't put up much of a resistance," Gia told her with a casual shrug. "I've had six-year-olds put up more of a fight over a candy bar."

"He returned it and apologized," Serena said defensively, but with a chuckle. "And I've explained to him why taking things without permission is bad."

"Good," Gia laughed. "Anyway, Sarah's in there now, telling him everything."

"Can't be easy," Serena sighed. "No matter what, that's still her dad."

"She's making the right choice," Gia said. "Any toxic relationship needs to be cut, no matter who it's with."

"I agree, but… I guess I'm just thinking that I can't expect her to just get over this," Serena said. "You might get to go home, once this is done, but I work with that kid."

"I know," Gia nodded, then smiled. "But you did a great job with me. Everything I threw at you, you had a response for."

"I was winging it, most of the time."

"You figured it out, and you'll do it again," Gia assured her. "Besides, Sarah's a…"

A loud bang interrupted the conversation as all eyes turned to the workshop. It crumbled to the ground, with nothing left standing except for a large pile of rubble and Madam Oedius standing overtop of it. She looked to the Rangers with a proud smirk.

"Told you I'd kill them," she said just before disappearing. The Rangers all raced over to the workshop and started to dig through the rubble. Kelly rolled over and watched from the sidelines. It wasn't possible, or safe, for her chair to climb the debris.

"Who was in there?" she heard Levi ask.

"Sarah and her parents," Calvin responded. "They've got to be buried under here."

"Split up," Brody instructed. "Dig up as much as you can. Just be careful we don't cause the pile to collapse further.

"I don't think it can," Preston said with a heavy sigh.

Kelly watched, and waited, and watched. She couldn't believe this was happening.

But at least now she knew Bill had been right. Madam Oedius had threatened to kill Jenny and Sarah if he betrayed her. It wasn't much comfort. In fact, it didn't comfort Kelly at all, but at least now she knew Bill was telling the truth.

Her heart was pounding in her chest as the Rangers dug. She grew tired, so she couldn't imagine how they felt as they worked. When Dane called out that he had found someone, Kelly prayed it was Sarah's body he pulled out. His boys joined him, helping in the dig to recover whoever they had found. Unfortunately, as they pulled the body out, it was obvious this was Bill.

"Is he alive?" Brody asked. Dane shrugged his shoulders as he picked up the other man and carried him over to the side of the workshop. He laid him down on the grass and checked his breathing. When he couldn't feel anything, he checked for a pulse.

"Nothing," he said. Kelly felt a weight on her chest, but at least now she knew this was over. Bill couldn't hurt her family, or Sarah again.

At least, not once Sarah learned to move past this.

"This is why I hate you," Kelly growled to the man as Dane tried in vain to resurrect him with CPR. Kelly wished he wouldn't but knew they wouldn't be the good guys if they didn't try.

A few minutes after recovering Bill's body, Gia announced she found someone else. Since it was only the Thompson Family in the barn with Oedius when it collapsed, this body could only be Sarah or Jenny. Kelly felt her heart stop as the limp and bloody body was pulled form the debris.

"It's Jenny," Gia announced as Serena helped carry her over to the grass. "Sarah's still in there. Keep digging!"

Kelly's focus was split. She wanted to see Jenny and know how she was doing, but with Sarah still trapped, she wanted to do whatever she could to help. She wanted to know the exact moment Sarah was found so she could tell her friends what to do, how to help her.

But as Gia and Serena lay Jenny on the grass, Kelly's attention shifted to her – Sarah's mother.

"Please, please, Jenny," Kelly begged as Gia started CPR while Serena pulled out her Samuraizer and called 911. That had to mean there was hope. That had to mean that there was a chance Jenny would survive.

Jenny needed to survive.

"He's gone," Dane suddenly announced. He didn't get much of a response, but with Jenny fighting for her life and Sarah still buried, he didn't think he would. Dane stopped trying to resurrect Bill and sat down next to him. "He's dead."

"I found her!" Preston shouted.


End file.
